Three years ago today, I dropped my last name
[was pretty excited to not have to deal with people asking "How do you spell that? Czarnecki?"] and became Maegan Annette Burke :]
When I was a Sophomore in high school, our super cool Senior friend, Daniel, brought one of his friends, Eamon, to our lunch table. He was pretty quiet, but when someone spilled their water bottle he said "Oh. My water broke." It was the funniest thing to 6 high school boy crazy girls, but particularly me ;]
[and how funny is it that his ice-breaker joke was about BIRTH?! I should have known then...]
Eamon was a library aid during my fourth period Criminal Justice class. I was a band/choir kid and had no interest at all in being in the class, and my teacher was kind enough to see that. He wrote me a library pass to go "work on other school work" and gave me an A in the class as long as I took the test. That's where we met. That's where we fell in love.
I was a very troubled young lady when we met. In fact, one of the first ways he let me know how he felt said "a beautiful girl like you doesn't need to be doing that
[cutting, BARF] to herself." I was VERY awkward, ya'll...VERY. But he thought I was beautiful. He saw something in me no one else did. On September 8th, 2004 we went on his first date, to Equal Eyes in Corpus Christi, Tx, for his band's first show. That's also when I got my first kiss.
Eamon was always patient, kind, encouraging, everything a 16 year old boy is clueless about. About a year into our relationship, my dirty, ugly lie of a life crashed in on me. Before I was saved, I was a liar. The worst kind. It got to where I didn't really know if I was lying because all of my lies were so elaborate, so deeply rooted, I didn't really know how to separate them all. When the truth came out, it nearly killed me. All of my lies had been exposed, I didn't know who I was, neither did Eamon. But he stuck by me. If everything I told him had been a lie and he still loved me, he wanted to know who I
really was. So we stayed together.
He waited around in po-dunk Rockport for me to graduate. I remember my dad being upset that we had been together this long, he said "Unless you're gonna marry this boy, you need to move on! It's not good to stay with one person for so long!" I probably rolled my eyes or something and he said "WHAT?! You think you're gonna marry him!?" I said "probably" and the usual fight over how rebellious and naive I was began for the night :]
We left the country for the first time together after I graduated on a mission trip to Thailand. I turned 18 on the plane ride over. While we gawked at the beauty of the country, and shuddered over it's poverty, all I could think about is "I want to work here with him as my husband." When we visited the orphanages of the little girls [under 7 years old, mostly] who'd been taken out of sex slavery, all I could think about is adopting one or twenty with Eamon. I was sold. I knew he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Now I just had to wait.
When we got back, Eamon moved to Austin because it was the closest place to Kerrville [where I would be going to school] that he could get a job and had friends. We did the long distance thing. It was awful. I was working at the most stressful job I'd ever [to this day] had, was out of my element, had great friends, but was missing my best friend. I visited Austin as much as I could. The days we spent there were precious. We'd save up our money and go on super fun dates while he showed me the city.
During this time, I found out about Intentional Gatherings and decided I was moving to "Dallas" [yes, small town me thought that East Lancaster and Dallas were the same thing] So without hesitation, Eamon moved up here with the only friends we had. I went to check out IG's community home to see if it was a suitable fit and to visit Eamon during Spring Break.
On Good Friday, 2008, Eamon walked from
Arlington to Ft Worth in the middle of the night. He called me at 3 in the morning and told me to walk outside. I found him there, shaking from adrenaline, and asked if he was crazy. He started telling me about what he had been talking to God about, but all I could think was "I'm in my pj's...How'd he get here?!...I bet my breath stinks real bad...wait, why is he here?!" Then he reached in his pocket, got down on one shaky knee, and asked me to marry him. Without hesitation, I said yes.
We planned our wedding for the first day of summer. We had always talked about a fall wedding, but we just couldn't wait :]
We got married in Rockport, but drove ALL the way back to Arlington that night. We followed the most beautiful thunderstorm I've ever seen the whole way there and got pulled over for speeding. When the police officer saw Eamon in his white tuxedo, he let us go to "have a good night."
When I am 31, I'll have been with Eamon longer than I've been without him. I love him dearly, like I've never loved anyone before, and can't imagine loving anyone the same again. His passion to grow and push me in any way that God has him is inspiring. His unending love for his girls puts a lump in my throat. Even though some days are hard...really, really hard, I pray that God gives us the rest of our days together.
What's your love story? I'd love to hear it!
Mae
You can read last year's anniversary post
here :]
