In honor of our one year anniversary, I've decided to share Kris and my story on the blog... Enjoy!
Kris and I first met the summer I was 16. It was the early morning, just before sunrise, and he helped me park my car in the alley behind my boyfriend at the time's house. The first thing he said to me other than "Hi, I'm Kris" was "Oh my god, you have freckles!". I should have known then and there he was the one. I mean honestly, who can deny a love of freckles. My ex and I continued dating for about a year when we finally just called it quits. Kris and I talked on and off during that time, but just as friends. Kris is a good 4.5 years older than me, and being in high school at the time, we really didn't have all that much in common.
Fast forward a little over a year, it was Fall 2008. I was 17 and a senior in high school. I had heard through the grapevine that Kris had gone off to join the Navy, but really didn't think too much of it, after all we were just friends. I remember checking my MySpace on a whim and seeing a bulletin he had posted asking for everyone's AIM info. I shot him off my screen name and signed off. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I got a pop-up on my computer from FCSAPearson. It was Kris. We ended up chatting back and forth until the next morning before we both decided we should call it a night. I remember waiting the next day for him to sign back on, super stalker I know. But after keeping my computer on and up all day, he finally signed on that night. Just like the night before, we stayed up chatting. After a few more of these occasions we finally swapped numbers and after that it was really only a matter of time until we were "official".
He came out a few weeks later to visit, as we are both from the same hometown. My parents were pretty cautious at first when I told them about the age difference, but a few cigars later between Kris and my dad, and they were like long lost siblings. To this day, I think Kris is by far his favorite. We continued to date long distance, he was stationed between Great Lakes, IL, and Dahlgren, VA, for the next two years, until he finally got permanent order to Hawaii.
I remember getting the call one night that they had picked orders that day in class and it was between Japan and Hawaii. We had planned on him getting orders to San Diego, and us getting a tiny little apartment together while I went to college. We had everything planned, down to a little miniature pig we both wanted to name Piggy Sam. But that's life. He told me he had picked Hawaii over Japan, and then asked me to come with him. We had talked about it before, but being San Diego it wasn't that much of a change. I was scared to say the least, but I said yes.
That January, I started getting nervous about the move. The what if's started popping into my head, and naturally I voiced them to Kris. What if I couldn't find a job? What if it was too expensive to live? How were we going to afford both of us on one paycheck? And on and on and on. It was that conversation that turned into the biggest decision either of us would make as a couple. That conversation that amidst all my what if's, he posed his own: "What if we got married?" Sure we had talked about it, in the future though, nothing while he was in the service, nothing before I finished college, it was sort of the unwritten rule. I remember asking him if he was serious. I mean I knew he loved me, but marriage, kind big huh? I slowly came to terms with the idea. Truthfully, I was thrilled at the thought of marriage, especially to Kris. So I embraced my dad's words of wisdom, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" and we decided to get married.
Later that week we broke the news to our parents and began the wedding planning details. About a month or two in, the news hit. Kris had contacted his ship and received news that in order for us to qualify for marriage benefits with the military we would not be able to legally tie the not while he was on leave in between duty station transfers. "What are you two going to do now?" was the first thing out of my mom's mouth. What had originally been planned as a small 20 person max. get together, was slowly turning into a 100+ ball with the inclusion of almost every member of Kris' family. I was overwhelmed enough as it was with one wedding to plan, but now the thought of having to legally marry Kris ASAP just to get some paperwork turned in on time... uhm, yeah. Somehow, throughout the whole mess, I was super calm. In the hour after receiving the news, I had booked a flight, arranged a minister, and ordered a simple dress off the internet. We were good to go. I flew out the next Sunday and we were married in a small "chapel", using the term chapel to loosely describe a nicely decorated living room, the morning of March 16th, 2010, in Stafford, Virginia.
Let me just tell you folks, "springtime" in Virginia, is THE farthest thing from spring like. Hence the tights despite the sun. I spent the remainder of the week in DC with Kris before flying out that Thursday. We spent the next two months apart, some newlyweds huh, until our "renewal" in May (the originally planned wedding with friends and family.
Well gang, that is the story of how Kristopher Pearson and Ashley McMillion became Mr. and Mrs. Pearson.
One year down, and seventy more to go.
