It was a start

I decided to change my blog into a sort of "Information Station" about Travis and I. A way to let people know what we're up to and what's new in our lives, especially since our siblings live so far away. So in order to do so, I'm going to give you a little background information for those of you who don't know us that well. It may take me a couple of posts to do so, but i think it will be fun to go down memory lane. So this post is the start of something very small.


For as long as i can remember, Travis and I have attended the same church, the same school, and lived 5 blocks away from each other most of our lives. When we were younger i knew who he was, but he was more of an acquaintance, not a friend. We were always in the same bible class at church, yet we had never spoken a word to each other.

Even though we weren't friends yet, we had been through a major tragedy together. Close to the end of our 6th grade year, we (our class) was invited to attend a youth group retreat with our church. The youth group consisted of 7th- 12th graders and it was a tradition to invite the incoming 7th graders on the spring retreat as a welcoming weekend. After a very spiritual lifting weekend in the mountains, we packed up the buses and started to head for home. I was on the first bus, also known as Bertha, and Travis got on the yellow school bus. We hadn't been driving very long when the driver of Bertha pulled over on to the side of the road. All of her occupants were confused and started asking questions. All we were told was that the other bus had been in a wreck and we were gong to wait for them to sort everything out. So we all unloaded and walked around. We could see the other bus on the other side of the mountain, but it was small and we couldnt see the damage. After waiting around for what seemed like hours, they told us that some people were going to have to go to the hospital and they were waiting for the cops, so we were going to a local church to wait it out. I guess we all got a little more nervous because i remember the ride to the church was pretty quiet. When we got to the church, they welcomed us with open arms. They had food for us, blankets and some people even opened up there homes so that we could rest or take a shower. After hours of being there, we were all starting to ask questions. We hd beed there for a long time and still had not heard anything. No one would answer our questions but we could tell from the looks they were giving us that what had happened was not good.

It was late when the majority of the people from the yellow bus arrived at the church. They had all been checked out by the hospital and they were exhausted, as could be imagined. I don't remember what was said or how things happened exactly, but i remember this is when we found out for sure that there were some deaths. I remember hugging them all and not knowing what to say. We had all been through this trajedy, but our experience was not near as trajic as the experience these members had to go through.Travis was coming down the line, doing his fair share of hugging, and when he got to me i hugged him and told him something to the effect of i was glad he was alright. He fought past the feeling of exhaustion enough to reply back with a "Thank You." I believe those were the first words i had ever said to him.

The next few weeks brought a lot of tears and sadness. But the sadness faded into joyfulness because the 6 girls who had died were in heaven with God and all their sorrows and pain on this earth were over. Our group had grown stronger through it all. Through the trajedy, we all shared a very small bond. I had spoken my first words to the man who would someday become my friend, my best friend, my boyfriend, and my husband. It was a small start to a small friendship.