Stephen Bruington

It's really, *REALLY hard to believe that Sarah (Crawford) and I will be married this Saturday! Ours is a funny story, the details of which I'll get into at another time, in another post and perhaps on another blog. For now, I want to let the world know - WHY?

When we first "met" (on Facebook, actually we already knew each other, I promise to post the whole story later) Sarah and I both felt like there was something special between us. We spent our time "together" on Facebook, GoogleTalk/Video and on the phone. We were able to see and hear one another, but we couldn't touch. I had always believed that touching someone made all the difference, now I know that's not necessarily the case, at least not for us.

I used to tell Sarah, "This is our fairytale." I dreamed that life together would be...well, perfect. It turns out that life throws FAST, curve balls, hard and neither of us was prepared. I'm happy, proud and elated to report that we're fine and we've weathered MANY storms together.

Okay, back to the question - WHY?

I am marrying Sarah Crawford because...

...she believes in me, even when I don't believe in myself.
...she forgives me when I make mistakes, and forgives again, and again...and again.
...she's there for me when I'm sick, hungry, tired, needy, clingy, angry, sad, happy.
...she's beautiful.
...she makes me feel so good [about myself] through compliments and encouragement.
...she's trusting - she trusts me.
...she stands by me in any [and every (crazy)] decision I make.
...she's willing to let me try new things, even when she might not understand my reason for so doing.
...she loves Jennifer (my daughter).
...she has faith that I'll meet her needs, and provide for our family in the way that our family needs.
...she's an excellent cook.
...she truly loves me, unconditionally.
...she's willing to do whatever it takes to make this marriage, our life together - work!

That's why I love Sarah (Crawford). (Visit our tumblog here - http://bruington.tumblr.com)

I love you Sarah. I hope after reading this you know how much I love, and care about you. I'm so grateful to have you in my life. I smile when I think of all the fun times we've had together. I look forward to many days, weeks, months, years ahead with you, and our family.

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I thought it might be important to give a quick re-cap on the past few weeks and months to identify the progress I've made. There have been so many changes in my life over the last weeks, months, years that it's sometimes hard to keep track. I could spend hours writing about all the different areas of my life and the intimate details of each, but I decided to narrow it down to a select few: relationships, career, education and fitness.

Relationships
I can't say that I've mastered this one, but I've learned enough to know that it's easy to mess up without realizing it. I've had my fair share of challenges, frustrations, battles with pride and learning experiences. I've been up hill...and down...and up, again...and down, again. I finally feel like my "boat" is running an even course and the keel is finally fully inserted.

I'm engaged! I feel so lucky to have this girl in my life. After all I've been through I not only felt like giving up, but I was convinced that I wouldn't find anyone to love me, care for me, trust me and open their arms, life and heart to my daughter. Well, I found her!

Sarah and I have been together for almost a year. We met a long time ago, in Richmond, but never really knew each other. We became re-acquainted on Facebook, I moved to Utah and spent 6 months with her out there, then she moved back to VA with me and the rest is history. We'll be married on November 28, 2009 and neither of us has been so excited. She's bought a dress, I've rented a tuxedo. We've had engagement pictures taken, invitations created, printed, put together and mailed; dinner reservations made, and to top it off - my Dad's performing the ceremony. Ah, life is good! :)

Career
This has been a looong, difficult, exciting, motivating/depressing road that has taught me more than nearly any other area of my life. I'm currently working for UnitedHealthcare as a "Medicare Inside Sales Representative", ie: I sell health insurance, via the phone (inbound calls) to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries across the entire US. I feel very blessed to have this job, it pays a base salary plus commission. I've become fairly proficient at this job and attribute my immediate success to the experiences and life lessons of all the other jobs I've had, combined.

At this point I've worked in such a variety of industries and positions I'm not sure what's left. Waiter, check. Cashier, check. Manager, check. McDonald's, check. Small business owner, check. Call center, check. IT support, check. Military, check. Sales, check. And the list goes on.

Education
This area still has work to be done, in fact quite a bit more, but the fact is I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. I'm 18 credit hours shy of an Associate's degree in Business Administration from Virginia Western Community College. I'll complete my degree in the Spring or Summer of 2010. Once graduated my current plan is to transfer to Virginia Tech's Accounting program and finish my bachelor's in the Spring of 2012. This goal may get bumped or skewed since I'm currently considering running for political office, at some point in my future, and may re-direct myself onto the attorney/politics track.

Fitness
Ah, the category of greatest need for improvement. :(  I must say, it's so much more depressing to lose weight and gain it back, than it is to lose weight. I spent most of my adult life around 180lb, but then ballooned to 230. I was then able to lose about 35 pounds and hovered under 200 for almost a year. I'm now back to 205lb and sad about the loss of progress over these past few months, but I digress.

I hope to run a marathon. I said, "hope" not "I have a goal" because I don't know if my knees will carry me that far. The farthest I've ever ran is just over 13 miles and that was about all my poor little legs could take. I'd like to think I can complete a 1/2 marathon, but we'll see. For now, I want to trim down to 170 - 175lb and be able to breeze through a 6 - 8 mile run, regularly.

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