I knew I was going to marry Tyson Moyers within a month of meeting him. From the get-go, it was just different with him, and by different I mean it was right. With Tyson there were no games, no wait-three-days-before-calling-her, no sleepless nights wondering what I did for him to just stop texting me. He liked me and he let me know it.

Because this was waaayyy different from what I had experienced in the decade before I met him, I was a little hesitant at first to trust that what I was seeing in him was real. It didn’t take me long to learn that Tyson Moyers was genuinely a good man. With him I could be myself without worrying if I was funny enough or smart enough or pretty enough or intriguing enough. He made me feel like I was simply enough by just being me. I had finally found my Prince Charming, and I was going to marry him.

Being married was the one thing I had wanted most after college. To me, marriage meant security and stability, two things that I craved after the roller coaster of my college years. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast in college. I loved being out of the fishbowl of my hometown, meeting new people, and just being responsible for taking care of myself. However, the lifestyle I was leading was very superficial and after a while I wanted something that was real and meaningful. In my mind, I was going to find that in marriage.

Dating Tyson was fun and exciting yet comfortable and secure. It was what I wanted for the rest of my life. When the weekend of our one-year anniversary rolled around, Tyson told me he was going to take me to dinner at a nice restaurant and then we were going to go back to the place where we were introduced. I was ecstatic. I was 99% confident that he had figured out he should marry me and that the proposal was going to happen on this romantic date he had planned.

It didn’t. I was pissed. I went to church the next morning and asked God to give me more patience since Tyson clearly wasn’t on my time schedule. I went back to his house to get ready to go to the lake and proceeded to pout and give so much attitude that he suggested I not go. Although that was tempting because I didn’t like him at all at the moment, I went to bathroom, had a good cry, then went outside and got in the Jeep. I started talking to him again about halfway to the lake, and by the time we got there I had talked myself into being okay with having to wait a little longer to get engaged.

About an hour later, he proposed to me out on the lake at the spot where we had our first kiss. I know I should’ve felt more remorse for my poor behavior that morning, but I was too busy being the happiest woman in the world.

I had finally found my match. The person that would both accept me and challenge me. The person that would be my rock in my hard times. The person that would encourage me and support me when facing life’s changes and challenges. The person who would put my happiness at the top of his list of priorities. I had finally found the person who would be for me what I would also strive to be for him.

Today marks our 7th anniversary. Has being married been all that I thought it would be? Yes and no. No, I didn’t think it would take as much work as it does to keep it on track. But yes, it has given me that sense of security and stability. Yes, life with him is real and it is meaningful. Yes, I still feel like I’m enough for him. Yes, through all the ups and downs we’ve encountered, Tyson remains my rock, my encourager, my supporter, my challenger, and best of all, my husband. And he’s all mine.