Untamed

They say that there is someone for everyone in this world. Ryan and I couldn’t be more opposite it seems but I without a doubt know he is my person. I know this because I do not think we would have made it this far in our journey with all the challenges that have been thrown our way. We have seemed to walk through the fire hand and hand overcoming those challenges with no injuries just lessons and growth.

Ryan and I met while attending Kirkwood Community College. We met in 2000. He tells the story a bit different than I do so you are going to get my version. I remember walking through the Linn Hall lobby to attend my class. Ryan seemed to always be in the lobby during my passing. He would say hello to me every time I passed by. He did this for weeks. I was extremely shy and would just keep walking and not speak until… it was finals week just before Christmas break.

I walked by Ryan and he of course spoke. Something in me gave me the courage to say hello back. He had a shocked look on his face and asked me when I was going to take him to lunch. I just smiled and walked away.

Later in that day I saw Ryan, he will tell you I followed him.. and I will admit I was hoping to see him. I worked up all the courage I had and as soon as I saw him I asked him when he was going to take me to lunch. He said now! He told me he left his wallet at home and had to go get it.. What really was going on was that Ryan was a caregiver to a quadriplegic gentleman to help get him through college. He ran into the house and told him he scored a date and asked for a $20 advance. We ended up going to KFC. Ryan had the pricing figured out.. he was praying I wouldn’t get anything more than a tenders meal. It just so happened that is exactly what I got.

Ryan and I were pretty much inseparable after our lunch date. I didn’t introduce Ryan to my family for a while. If I am being honest I was nervous. Nervous that Ryan would see how I grew up from very humble beginnings and I had a bit of a facade going to hide my past. At that point I had probably 15-20 store credit cards and a majority of them maxed out. I was also a little embarrassed of how I grew up and didn’t want to scare him away. If I am also being honest here.. we didn’t have much diversity in our little town. My family has a splash of diversity due to my mother being Hispanic but I was worried Ryan would be uncomfortable… in actuality it was me that was uncomfortable. I didn’t want to have to be put in a position to defend our love. I knew very early in our relationship that we were two untamed hearts and I was absolutely head over heels in love with him and if I had to make a choice I would choose him.

Ryan met my family a few months into dating and as crazy as he already knew I was he expected the same from my family.. let’s just say we didn’t disappoint and he stuck around. My family welcomed Ryan in with open arms.

Fast forward about a year into our relationship.. I found out I was pregnant. We were just young adults who were just getting to know each other now bringing a life into this world. We welcomed our son into this world and agreed at that time we were going to hold off on marriage and focus on our education and our child. That was exactly what we did. We both worked full time jobs while attending school at night. We both obtained our Bachelor’s degrees in just a few short years. We were determined to be successful not only for us but for our son as well.

About 5 years after our son was born Ryan proposed to me at my grandparents home in front of my family. What I didn’t know was he had taken my father fishing that prior Fall and asked him for my hand in marriage. My father of course told him at that time he better be sure because there was a no return policy. What I have learned over the years is that Ryan is an old soul. He truly is one of a kind.

Here we are 25 years later and stronger than ever. I look back on all the challenges that have been placed in front of us knowing we could have easily gave up but we didn’t. We had so many tables where we pulled up our own chairs… there were times we didn’t even have a table to sit at so we had to bring our own. I always go back to the love we have for each other. Our hearts are untamed and that is 100% our power.

The lessons we have learned along the way was our preparation to our biggest challenge yet. This farm..

Moral of the story…genuine love is wild and untamed that absolutely nothing can stand in its way. You don’t really find out its authenticity in the good times.. it’s the bad times where it tends to show its truest power.

-✌🏼🦁♥️Jamie