Forever Love: The Beginning

Before we launch our Forever Love series, we want to take a moment to embrace Women’s History Month. This past Sunday, the world experienced an outpouring of support for women. The lifting up was being held and propelled by a melting pot of humans: friends, husbands, daughters, business owners, and beyond. To me, International Women’s Day 2020 celebrated a heightened clarity of the truth that women have always and will always be strong.

This was not lost on Leah. On Sunday evening, Leah and I had a conference call (I dialed her number for the call to which she immediately ended and replaced with a FaceTime… which was way better). As we were reviewing our notes and writings for this post, she mentioned that she was using her new notebook.

“I was thinking when we are having doing this again with the Upside Down blog to use this to write highlights and notes in a brand new fresh updated notebook to use…

…It have says Girl Power on the front and it have a lot of colors. I want to have the notebook with Girl Power when we are doing the blog posting thing because both of us, we are Girl Power together.”

Girl Power. Together. Sing it sister.

Leah then went on to request that we change our name from Upside Down to Girl Power. Unfortunately, it’s just not in the budget to completely re-brand;). Future side project? Don’t put it past us.

From Upside Down, Happy late International Women’s Day and Happy Women’s History Month. We, all of us, are stronger together.

Back to business. Let’s get this series started.

Forever Love: it’s what defines the 30+ year story of Leah and Mark. It’s what they call each other, “my Forever Love”. It’s what they proclaimed when they walked down the aisle on July 20, 2019 for their Commitment Ceremony. It’s the Reba McEntire song they slow dance to when they reunite after they haven’t seen each other for a month or two (yes, they are thriving in a long-distance relationship between Texas and Nebraska)!

Before we jump to the white dress, made for TV moment, let’s back up. Where does the story of Mark and Leah begin? More often than not, in life, less is more. That is not the case when attempting to sum up a three decade love journey, but I must say, it’s worth the read. Take it away, Leah.

The picture I want to show you first is from when I went and was in school in Developmental Kindergarten at Bryan Elementary school. It was from when we both Mark and me meet together. This was before we become best friends.

During Elementary school when we were younger we start to hang out and Mark become a special friend in my lifetime. We play Nintendo games of PacMan together and we start more to become best friends and buddies.

I remember that I start to have surprise happy butterflies in my stomach when we hang out together and when I see Mark at school. And we want to be together more and it start to kind of be like that.

I have a picture from when we had our first date and I think he take me out for dinner and maybe a movie. I remember I was very surprised and kind of nervous a little that it was my first date. I was surprised and happy to having him to hold my hand. I remember he was very sweet and cute when he hold my hand.

If you look closely, you’ll notice a lingering younger sister glaring at the happy duo in a mixture of awe and skepticism, uncertain if I’m cool with sharing my older sister quite yet. When I look at my 7 year old self in that picture, I can’t help but feel consumed with gratitude for the thousands of moments -big and small- where Mark and Leah will illustrate genuine love right before my eyes in the years to come.

Also, what can be more honest than admitting you don’t exactly remember the details of a monumental event? Heck, Leah wasn’t quite sure if it was lunch, dinner…he could have taken her to the circus. What she does remember though? …”He was very sweet and very cute when he hold my hand.”

When I was on Special Olympics track and field team I was running in a running race on the track. I was getting ready to run on the track with two other runners and one runner run into me and I fall down on the track and my knees and elbow and arm and face have hurt very bad. And when I fall down my boyfriend Mark he come down from sitting on the bench and come to the track. I was hurting and I was brave and strong and Mark say Come on Honey I know you can do it. And he help me to finish the race and to get a metal. That make me feel in my heart that Mark really care about me and love me too.

And that is a perfect love story.

In Middle School that is when Mark had move with his parents to live in Capell, Texas. I miss him when he move away.

I begin High School with my sister Megan and we have a lot of fun times together as sisters. Then it was one of the days in High School and I look over and I see someone who was in my class and it was Mark. And I was very surprised and I was very happy to go talk to my Mom and my Dad right away when I get home from school.

There was some things that I need to have my mom and dad to help me with at that time and I am like Oh Wow when I find out and see that Mark is back.

We start to hang out together a lot. We go to dances together like the Special Friends Prom and other dances. We love dancing together. He look very handsome in this picture.

We had both graduate from High School. After that time I transition to the Young Adult Program and Mark moved back to Texas to live on a Ranch with friends and people who help support people who have Down Syndrome. He still lives there today.

There was a lot of times when I was thinking of Mark after High School and how I had miss him. I call his mom and dad and I ask to reconnect with Mark to see him. We had reconnect when he come in town for Christmas and he said he didn’t know how much that I miss him or had been thinking about him. He said to me that I have also be thinking and missing you too Leah.

After we had reconnect and we go back and start talking we start by taking things slow. We go back to become friends first then later we become boyfriend and girlfriend but we go slow.

When we were little and had find each other we begin to love each other. It takes time and a while to know each other and take things slow to become boyfriend and girlfriend love.

And after that we do long distance relationship for a lot of years and we fall in love.

One day after Christmas time on my Grandpas birthday in 2007 Mark give me a Promise Ring. It was a ring to promise to be together forever and always. We cook together a candlelight dinner with sparkling grape juice to celebrate our promise of love. I still wear my promise ring everyday. We have been promised together for 12 years.

After we got promised then my mom and dad and me had try to move and live in San Antonio, Texas. It was far away from home. It was the time we want to try to be together more with Mark and to live there. We live there for one year to try it out. What we have find out that I was starting by having allergies very bad and everyday have headaches. It was a lot of pollen and high moist there. I was allergic to different kind of trees there too.

I was kind of allergic to Texas and that is why we move back because of that and also that it is really far away from home.

After that we do long distance and it can be hard but we make it work. We write a Blog Post about it in the past and you can go back to read it if you would like to read about it here where Lindsay put the link.

On Valentine’s Day 2019 I have a big surprise of a lifetime and I want to tell you about it in the next blog post.

Our Forever Love story is a very special story. It’s kind of like I think the word is adventure. The adventure story that I have with my best friend Mark. Thank you to read about it.

An adventure story with your best friend. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. “Surprise happy butterflies”. Although I couldn’t actually see butterflies fluttering around them on their first date while I observed from my perch when I was 7, I can state with certainty that I’ve felt the presence of those butterflies every time I’ve been around Mark and Leah. 

What continued to become uncovered as we wrote and reflected together on their love story was not the super specific details from the past, but those stinkin’ butterflies. The way he has made her feel in different moments and the way he continues to make her feel. The way she makes him feel. It’s a love that defies distance. There is no number of miles and no amount of time that can stand in their way. It’s Forever. It’s Love. 

Here’s to turning our minds Upside Down.