I started writing letters to my future husband five years before I met him.
I don’t know what prompted me to start compiling a book of letters to him. Maybe, while at a sleepover, my best friend mentioned she was writing letters to her future husband. Perhaps I found the idea in one of my many relationship books or happened upon a blog post about it. For whatever reason I picked up a new notebook, wrote my phone number, and “Please do not read!” on the cover, and began writing letters.
I filled this notebook with letters for the next five years. I wrote my last entry two months before I met my hubby.
As a teen, I had visions of wrapping this journal, and giving it to him on our honeymoon. I pictured his eyes streaming with tears as he carefully read every letter, overwhelmed with amazement.
That’s not exactly how it went down.
I gave him the notebook about a week ago. It was packed up at my parent’s house in my old room, and I just recently transferred that box to our apartment. I gave him the notebook (of which I had already told him about) while we were sitting in the living room. Tears did not stream from his eyes. We did not romantically pour over every entry. He did note the importance of the moment, and gave me a hug, and a smile. He opened a few letters, and we laughed at my high school romanticism forever embodied on those fervent, pages. The letters were not quite as eloquent or romantic as I had remembered.
Despite the fact that the letters were not exactly as important as I had previously pictured, keeping a journal of letters for my future husband was one of the best things I have ever done.The surprising truth is that this notebook impacted me a lot more than it impacted my future hubs. He appreciated the journal, and what it signified. He read through my letters, looked at my pictures, and opened my notes. The letters, to him, only told him of a character he already knew in me.
However, writing these letters ingrained a lot of truth into my bones over the years, and provided me with a tangible way to love him long before we set eyes on each other.
In the Midwest, young girls used to work with their mothers on putting together a hope chest. This traditionally cedar trunk symbolized them preparing, and anticipating marriage. They would fill this trunk with clothing, household linens, and other homemade items.
My old notebook, filled with dog-eared letters, old pictures, and faded valentines was my hope chest. I did not sock away linens, dishes or clothing but I did tuck away my hopes in anticipation of the future.
This vessel of letters served me in ways I can only now appreciate. When I felt blue that everyone but me seemed to have a man in their life, I would pull out my journal, and feel immensely better after writing a secret letter to MY boyfriend (he was, after all my boyfriend, he just did not know it yet). When Valentine’s Day came around and there were no roses or love notes for me I would make or buy a Valentine’s Day card for him and write a saucy message asking why he forgot Valentine’s Day again. When I missed him before I met him, I wrote out prayers for him, for his day, and for our future together. When I happened upon a name I loved, I would tuck it away in my list of “future baby names”. When I read a good book or saw a great movie I would write him about it. Sometimes months would go by without me penning him a letter, but then I would return again to update him on my life.
I carried a secret with me throughout the last few years of high school and into college. That secret was that I was already taken, I just did not know by whom yet. I was just waiting for him to actually reveal his name–details, details.
When I read those old letters, now that I am married, I can trace our lives before I ever knew how to pronounce the Tongan word that what would become my new last name.
When, as a sixteen-year-old, I started my journal of letters to him he was 3,500 miles away, working construction in Maui as a twenty-four year old who had no interest in returning to the mainland. When, as a nineteen-year-old, I prayed for him, he was deciding to go back to school and get a college degree. When I thought about him as a twenty-year-old he was visiting a college I had attended the year before. His path nearly crossing mine on multiple occasions. When I composed a poem for him as a twenty-one-year old, he was attending college classes twenty-five miles from my work place. I did not know it yet, but his path was on route to intersect mine in a small history class only a few months later.
I love this, it’s so sweet. I wish I would have down something like this growing up, defiantly would have helped through those awkward teenage years.
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award. You can check it out here: https://c2creativelycourtney.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/the-liebster-award/
Thanks for the sweet comment, Courtney and the Liebster Award! I appreciate you, and I love following your blog!
This is sweet! I am sorry he did not quite react the way you envisioned, but it seems like he still valued it and more importantly, values you and sees the character that has developed in the person he loves. I love how you called your journal your hope chest. It really was! I totally agree that it is an awesome blessing for yourself to have all the different journal entries chronicled through the pages and you can remember different memories and later see the growth in your life. I wrote in a journal for nearly 8 years before meeting my (now) husband. I finished the last page of the journal exactly one month before meeting the man who is now my husband! It was filled with joyful memories and achievements like college graduations as well as really hard things like dealing with anxiety and loneliness while away at grad school. I would read it from time to time and be so blessed my seeing God’s hand at work in my life through the pages of that journal and hoped my future husband would treasure it too. Once we started dating a few months later, I started a new journal that had his name on every page (rather than ‘dear future husband’ or something of that nature). I wrote funny memories from dates and FaceTime dates (we were long distance), prayers for him, and lots of letters about what I loved and respected about him. A month after he proposed, I gave him the first journal that was written before I met him and then I gave him the second journal (about 1.5 years of writing) on our wedding day. While living away from each other during our engagement, he would pour over the pages and read the prayers I prayed for him before we met and all I wrote and said it was the best gift he’s ever received. It helped ease the pain of being apart the last few months before we were married since he had a piece of “me” he could read at night when he missed me. I hope to tell me future daughters to do this too, because it not only will bless their future husbands but also themselves too!
(sorry for the novel!)
Oh, Elena, thank you for sharing! I am so glad you did! I never even thought of starting a new journal, and writing to him after we had met. What a great idea!! You are a true romantic. 🙂 I think it is so sweet how much he treasured those letters. I am definitely going to tell my future daughters about the way you wrote to your hubby, I just love how you took it a step further and made it personal after he had stepped into your life.
Bethie,
Writing anything down helps you to understand it better, and I would venture to postulate that you helped figure out what kind of a man you wanted to marry, by writing those letters! When he came along, you were ready to meet him! Very cool (and romantic) idea.
Thanks Mom. 🙂 That is true. I actually wrote a list of what I wanted my future hubby to be in the book, and he met all (but one) qualification. I am working on a post for the future about the list, and what I would write now.
Thank you for sharing this. I have been writing letters to my future husband but recently wondered at the point of writing and if I would ever give him the letters. This has encouraged me to keep going. Thanks for sharing
Oh, Kimberley, keep at it girl!! It will be so worth it in the end. If you need further encouragement read the comment left by Elena in this comment thread. She had a great experience writing letters to her future hubby too!
Ergh…I love this. You are such a romantic! I never wrote letters to my man, although I did ask him a question or two in journal entries here and there. Reading this post reminds me of those melodramatic, beautiful teenage years. I often marvel at how God brought my husband and I together. We too were far apart, geographically, although not quite as much as y’all!
But of course, God is a romantic, too, so I suppose it makes sense.
Ha ha! I certainly do not miss certain aspects of those melodramatic teen years. That is so neat that you and your hubs were far apart as well. I would love to hear (or read) your love story someday!