Tessa Messa: Our love story!

Today I am going to share how Michael and I met and fell in love, its kind of a long story so I will try my best to keep it short, but I'm not promising anything!

When I was a tiny awkward little 8th grader I met a beautiful brown haired girl name Shannon we instantly became best friends and spent most of our days swooning over Justin Timberlake and walking around the track at school singing the entire *Nsync album from memory! Yes we are that awesome! Anyways I stated going to Shannon's house on Sundays for bible study that her parents hosted. It was at this bible study where I first laid my eyes on Michael, he was the oldest child of a family that lived down the street from Shannon. I remember leaning over to Shannon and asking who the hot guy was ha ha! He was two years older than us and seemed sooooo cool and he pretty much ignored us because we were lame middle school girls. However about a year later things started to change. All the teens from our bible study took a trip down to Panama City beach, FL for a christian camp called Big Stuff (woot woot). It was during this trip that Michael started to notice me, we flirted during the trip but me being the shy 14 year old girl scared of rejection, insisted I did not like him *sigh*. So I left the trip with a giant crush on Michael but nothing to show for it, I didn't see Michael for the rest of the summer due to family vacations and such.
So at the beginning of my sophomore year, Shannon and a few of my other friends were all going to the mall and asked if I wanted to go, of course I did!!! The only hold up was that Michael was going to drive us all and I would have to get my dad's permission to ride with a teenage driver who also happened to be a boy. I begged and begged and much to my surprise he said YES!! So off we all went to the mall, we all walked around and once a again Michael and I flirted, I remember leaving that night so giddy I couldn't sleep! So the next day when one of my friends called I was so excited to talk about the night and of course Michael. Being the typical teenagers that we were, and never being able to say exactly what we mean and playing all kinds of games, she asked me if I knew who Michael liked (just couldn't come out and say it cause that would be to easy). Of course me being terrified of rejection I guessed every girl I knew except me, my friend said NO he likes YOU!!!! I kid you not from the moment she told me this I thought about Michael for every single second of every single day, it still gives me butterflies thinking about it. So over the next two months we did a lot of talking on the phone, my first date with a boy that could drive, our first kiss and tons of watching Michael play soccer.
November rolls around and Michael being the typical senior boy wasn't sure if he wanted the commitment of a girl friend especially his senior year, geeez! So what is a girl supposed to do? Play hard to get of course! So that's what I did, I had Michael's best friend tell him that I was thinking about dating another guy and sure enough that did the trick ( I know, so mature). So on November 16th, 2001 in the back of a suburban on the way to an indoor soccer game, Michael asked me to be his girlfriend and of course I said yes!!!

Over the next 9 months we had tons more dates, our first Christmas, first I love yous and our first prom. Then came August and Michael was leaving for college. I remember that night just like it was yesterday, the night before he left for school. I remember kissing him goodbye knowing I wouldn't see him for a month but more I was worried about what would happen to us. I mean what was the chance of us making it, I was terrified he was going to find someone better, I mean I was going to be up against college girls for crying out loud!! That night was so hard, I remember crying all night long and the next day and the next day. Back then our cell phones didn't have long distance so we really only talked on aol instant messenger(oh yeah), and ran up some pretty huge long distance phone bills.
Much to my surprise Michael going off to school only strengthened our relationship, I am not saying we didn't have our struggles because oh my goodness we did, and I am so grateful that the Lord grew us together and not apart, because we both changed a ton over the years.

Our first prom 2002

Prom 2003

Prom 2004

Spring break 2006

January 2007

May 2007

So 2007 rolls around and Michael is about to graduate from college, we both knew we wanted to wait until I graduated college in December 2008 before we got married but we wanted to get engaged sometime between then, I just didn't know when. August 5th, 2007 we took a walk on the beach and Michael asked to me marry him!!! It was the best day of my life up to that point!!! So the wedding planning began, my dad always told me he would not pay for a wedding unless I had a college degree. I was set to graduate on December 20th, 2008, so we set our wedding date for two weeks later: January 3, 2009 (no wasting time here). After a year and five months of planning the day finally came. It was a dream come true, everything that I could have ever imagined. I can honestly say that from the moment I found out Michael liked me I kept telling myself "I am going to marry him"!
So now here we are 3 and a half years later and 11 years since we started dating and I love that man more than I could have ever imagined. He is my best friend there is no one I would rather spend every single day of my life with. I am so grateful for what the Lord has done in our lives and in our relationship. I am so blessed to call Michael by husband, he has made all my dreams come true and I know he will continue to throughout our life!
So if you are still with me, thanks for hanging in there and here are a few more pics: