My mommy taught me to read when I was very tiny, I read my first whole book when I was two, and I pretty much haven't stopped since! I used to get in trouble in elementary school because I didn't want to go out and play at recess, I wanted to sit in the corner and read. I haven't changed all that much.

Anyhow, when I was on about 10 or 11, I started reading young adult romance novels. I ran out of those around when I started high school and graduated to the adult romance novel. And when i would read these books, I would picture myself as the glamorous heroine, and imagine how someday I would meet a man and be swept off my feet by this incredible tidal wave of romance, and passion, and we would have this tumultuous relationship, and there would be ups and downs...but through it all, we'd know that we were going to live happy ever after because our love was destiny.

Then I started dating. And the more people I met, and the more relationships I had, the more I started to think that maybe...I had read too many books.

There's a line in the movie Sleepless in Seattle where one character says to another, "You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie!". That really hit home for me. I didn't want to be in love like everyone else, I didn't just want to have this everyday relationship. I wanted magic. I wanted fireworks. I wanted to be in love in a Danielle Steel novel! And as I got older, I started to think that maybe I wanted too much, that the kind of love I was hoping for was solely the province of books and movies, and that maybe I needed to accept that the kind of love I was hoping for just didn't happen in real life.

So, as time went on, I gave up my dream. And it made me sad to have to do that. But I thought it would make me less sad than spending my life waiting for something that was never going to happen.

And then I met Sean. And the more we got to know each other, the more time wespent together, the more our relationship developed, the more I came to realize...it can happen in real life. It is possible to have this amazing, breathtaking, heart-pounding, gut wrenching, roller coaster ride of a relationship...and yet still have it be the safest, sweetest, realest place in the whole world.

And sure sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes it hurts. But you know what? If it was only good parts and no bad parts...it'd be a pretty boring book. And through it all, I have the assurance of knowing that this story has a happy ending. because I truly believe that our love is destiny.

Today is without a doubt the best day of my life. because it's the day my dream came true, and he's standing right next to me. So I would like to propose a toast, to my husband Sean, who is without a doubt the man of my dreams.

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