In late 2003, I fortuitously met Jenne.....again. The night I met Jennie again, we met at a park near her parents home, and I can still remember how the sky looked and how nervous I was to meet the girl I kissed nearly 13 years prior. Jennie and I had known each other since middle school, when we were 11 years old and in middle school. It was then that we shared our first kiss, the first time either of us ever really kissed someone. And the feeling that overcame me as I looked at her.....seeing her as a grown, beautiful and successful woman....it was one of the best feelings I've ever felt. That night my friends and I planned on going out to San Francisco, to club NV (which I'm not quite sure exists anymore). Even as I was meeting her, my friends were en route to my place. When I got home, I half-sarcastically, half-heartedly said to my friends "I just met THE girl for me, what's the point of going out...." Of course I went out anyways and had a blast.
But something really did change. Slowly, I found myself gravitating towards Jennie, and found her making short calls and email exchanges to me as well. Fast forward to early 2004: we were infatuated with each other and it was probably almost sickening to most people. But the world really seemed to vanish even while we were mostly together in the middle of the busy streets we lived above in San Francisco.
I fell in love with her after just spending a few weeks with her. What's more......I keep falling in love with her over and over again. While having a chat with her father, he once told me how Jennie had followed her and hiked up a large hill even while her mom and sister decided to stop because they were tired. As he told me this, I saw my wife interacting and playing around with her sister and mom....I vividly imagined her following her dad, tired legs and all.
When I saw her scared out of her mind on a 80 ft tall tree in Puerto Vallarta and still find the courage to follow thru on zip lining with me thru the rain forests in Mexico, I felt gratitude, but I also felt my love for my wife evolve. Or the countless times she plays April Fool's jokes on me and immensely enjoys the moment, laughing with her entire body as she revels in her triumphant prank.
And of course, the grace, patience, and diligence she has approached our entire relationship with, has been both inspiring and amazing for me to witness. Even now, as we prepare to leave for Korea on our first trip to meet our son Taeyeong, she calmly plays a game on our bed as she prepares for our long journey riddled with court dates and social worker meetings......but also a meeting with our son that we have waited 2.5 years for. And we can hardly believe it. And, again, I can feel my love for my wife evolving further as we prepare ourselves more and more for parenthood.
People often ask, as they usually do to married couples, "when did you know she was going to be the one you married? How did you know you guys were meant to be?" And my reply is simply "I don't know if we're meant to be, but I do know that life is better when I spend it with her and that I become a better person when I think about what I have to do to make our life together better." But the truth is, there was something, inside, even in that first meeting with her that I did feel - as much as I tried to bury it (since she was already in a relationship at the time). I knew she was someone that I naturally felt comfortable with. Someone that when I was simply near, the world had the volume turned down on and anything she said brought a smile to my face. Even in that first encounter, when we met at the park again as adults, I could feel the seed with which started a foundation of what my love for her has turned into. One that continues to grow and evolve in ways that I'm not even fully aware of at times. And I'm excited and thankful for the way my love for her will evolve as she becomes the mother of our son, and we become a family together. The best part about finding someone that you love selflessly, as I have so fortuitously found in my wife, is that you continuously fall in love with them....over and over again.
