Our Tale - of friendship, courtship, and life lessons

This post is about us, the Egberts! It's our story, how we met and fell in love. It's a tale of enchantment and adventure, full of surprising twists and turns. A story you won't want to stop reading until the final word...
Just kidding.
I only gave you that intro so that you have time to decide for yourself if you are interested in reading on I write this more in the spirit of reminiscing and for my own record keeping than for anyone else. But feel free to read on! Maybe there is something to gain by hearing our story - more than just learning about us.

Chandler and I met... we are not sure when exactly. We were just friends because of other mutual friends, and pinpointing the exact day has been a futile attempt for both of us (so true love isn't always at first sight). We met because I moved to Raintree apartments in Provo. I had been living at home for about a year, and it seemed like it was time to move out again. Chandler had been living at Raintree since he got home off of his 2 year mission to Bahia Blanca, Argentina. I moved into his ward. And then he moved out. haha. That's not the reason he moved, but for whatever reason he moved to a different building at Raintree - and just as things go in Utah Valley, that move was consequently a move to a different church ward. That was it, we were in the same ward for a grand total of maybe a month. Before he moved though, we had crossed paths just enough times to know who each other was and have a few mutual friends.

Chandler would come over to my apartment sometimes to visit my roommates, and when I was there too we would end up chatting sometimes. Somehow it came up on several of these occasions that I had experienced my fair share of blind dates. Both of us were dating other people at the time, and Chandler told me one day he wanted to add to my list and set me up with someone. As time passed, and as he would visit, Chandler decided he would like to ask me out himself - not set me up with someone else. How sweet.

After some time he finally asked me to go on a date with him. November 5, 2011 was our first date. Chandler wanted to do some service, so we found a yard in Provo with a bunch of leaves and asked the owner if we could borrow a rake or two to rake the yard. It was so much fun, and we talked a lot - our first time really being one on one with each other. I remember thinking Chandler was a pretty cool guy, and that going on another date would be fun. He was so easy to talk to and laugh with. We played in the leaves a bit, and then headed to a percussion concert at BYU. It was fun, and strange at some points - but good entertainment. Afterwards, we went to The Cocoa Bean to get some hot chocolate on our way back to Raintree. The whole date was fun!

However, Chandler was discouraged from my frequent comments and conversations with my sister about how I was just 'sick of dating' - this wasn't meant to be directed at him, but I always seemed to mention something along those lines when he was around... silly me. I didn't realize I was scaring away the man I would grow to love so much. We saw each other periodically, but a lot of signs steered Chandler away from asking me out again for a while. At some point I finally realized I hadn't seen or talked to Chandler much and wanted to see how he was doing. To his surprise I started texting him randomly, and he was a little apprehensive not knowing what I wanted - did I want space? Did I want to be friends? etc... The truth was, I missed talking to someone I loved talking to.

December 1, 2011 was an evening I will never forget. Chandler came over - one of his random visits to chat with us in our apartment. For some reason he looked differently to me that day. I don't know if he had just gotten a hair cut or something, but he seemed really attractive to me. Don't get me wrong, Chandler has always been good looking, but it used to be in a "isn't he just a great friend" kind of way - but for some reason that night I found myself pretty attracted to him - and Leigh even told me that night "I think you guys would be cute together". He talked with me and my roommates, and gradually everyone started to trickle off to bed. Everyone except for me and Chandler. We were up in the front room talking about anything and everything - until about 2am (yes, past curfew - we did that a lot in the next few weeks). It was that night that he made up the story of "Larry the Christmas Tree" on the spot and I thought he was so creative. It was that night that we talked about so many things, big and small - and it seemed to be the beginning of a conversation that would only continue to develop (little did I know that it would be forever).

After that night, Chandler and I saw each other every day. We worked out together on Saturday morning. That night, or on Sunday, he asked for the pleasure of my company as he worked on a final project for a class - and that turned into a great evening of even more enlightening conversation that spilled over into the next day. The next day was Chandler's birthday, and my niece was born that day. That was a fun connection. And we did more together that night. I started and ended his birthday with him. On Tuesday, Chandler and I were talking at my apartment that evening, and he just wouldn't leave until he told me something. It took several hours, but eventually he expressed that he really liked me (it took until 4am). I told him I really liked him too - but that I liked other boys as well. Talk about rude Candace! How silly could I be. I really did like Chandler, but I was just as surprised by this turn of events as I am sure he was. I thought about that conversation a lot over the next couple of days, and I couldn't get Chandler off of my mind. I didn't want to. That Friday I took Chandler on a date to the UVU Christmas party for members of the Alumni group. We built a gingerbread house, and watched the Grinch at the party - and during the whole movie we both battled with our desire to hold each others' hand. Eventually in the final minutes of the movie Chandler made the brave move to put his hand on my leg and, in his words, my hand immediately went "slunk" right into his. That was the first time we held hands.

The next day, a Saturday, there was a church Christmas party and we showed up as a couple. I held his hand all that day. I am not sure if it was this day, or the day after (sad that I don't really know), but in the evening we went for a drive. We ended up driving to the temple (which is often where I would drive to go think). We were talking about the temple and about each other and it was that night that Chandler kissed me. It felt so right, and so sincere. There weren't the usual questions in mind about if he felt the same, or if we shouldn't move so fast. I knew then that I could see myself marrying him, but I didn't tell him that. It was a couple of days after that, in one of our many late-night talks (who decided to get serious with dating someone right during finals?!), that I started to tell Chandler that I loved him. He stopped me from saying it, because it just seemed so fast, even though he felt it too. I knew I would say it later though - but I could wait.

The specific days have been somewhat of a blur since then, but at some point we decided to meet each others' families over the Christmas break from school. Chandler's family was going to be in Irvine, and my parents live in San Diego, so it was perfect. I called and told my mom that I wanted to bring a boy home to stay with us for a couple of days and she said she could hear it in my voice how excited and happy I was. She said I sounded different - more mature and complete with Chandler - than I had with other guys I had dated. Of course she said yes, and my dad's reaction was "we can't do another wedding" ha ha. I thought that was silly and jumping the gun (not denying it as a possibility however), but my parents were wise to the situation and saw how much I cared for Chandler.

We spent Christmas break together, and we drove up to Irvine and I met his family as well and stayed in the guest house at his grandparents. I share a birthday with his Grandad, so they accepted me into the family quickly :). I loved meeting most of his family! On Christmas Eve we parted ways for a couple of days, to spend Christmas with our own families and so Chandler could go with his family on the annual grand kids retreat. I can honestly say that was the worst Christmas ever, because it was like my family wasn't all I wanted to be with on Christmas anymore. I wanted to share that, and every other memory, with Chandler. We called each other every night and sent texts to each other throughout the days. One of the nights, near the end of our trip at my parents' house, we expressed our love for each other. I had never been so happy and so in love before.

We knew soon after that trip that we would be getting married. We got better at keeping the apartment curfew, but even when we were apart we would stay up late talking over the phone and sending texts to each other. I tried not to keep Leigh up, so I would text Chandler while buried under my covers in my bed. We were so in love! We didn't want to scare anyone though, so we planned to get engaged in March - after dating officially for a couple of months. It was near the end of January that we decided that was a silly reason. We both loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of our lives and eternity together, so why should we wait? We set our wedding date for the day after my graduation from UVU - April 28, 2012. Then we got engaged officially on February 2, 2012.

My reason for sharing this story? Not to bore you, and hopefully I haven't. The reason I share this is because it illustrates how life can surprise us - in a big way. In a magnificent way. Who would have thought that moving to an apartment complex in Provo would be the best decision of my life? Who would have thought acquaintances could become best friends in such a short time? I never wanted to be the girl who met and married someone within a month or two (which wasn't us to a "T" but our courtship was pretty dang fast) and I would get annoyed with the people who would say "when you know, you know". But I realize more now than I ever had before that there is a bigger plan for us than we have for ourselves. It takes faith and hope and putting yourself out there a little bit. It takes trust, and mostly trust in the powers beyond this world - trust in the bigger plan designed by our own Heavenly Father. Falling in love with Chandler was so natural when the time was right, and I couldn't have planned it better myself. Since December 1st, 2011 I can count the number of days I have gone without seeing Chandler on one hand. He is the man I always dreamed of with the traits I wanted in my spouse, and more. Together we are becoming the people we want to be because we have each other as support.

So whether you even read all of that or not (I don't blame you if you didn't) I write this to remind myself. We can't see the future, but there are joys ahead that we can partake in if we just put our feet forward with a little faith. It would be futile to try and explain exactly how I came to love and respect Chandler so much and so naturally. I just know that I had a goal in mind of what I wanted in a spouse, and Chandler surpassed what I could have imagined. Chandler is the love of my life, and a perfect complement to the traits that I have. Yes, we aren't perfect and we have our share of disagreements as everyone does - but we cannot deny the power and comfort that we have felt as we have moved forward together. We are best friends.

And this is the beginning of many adventures to come.

The pile of leaves we raked on our first date! (the same place Chandler proposed to me actually :)

November 5, 2011