Contributed by Southern Torch Wedding Giveaway winner Charity Hester
You know that saying people say in a clumsy attempt to lend comfort to a friend during a breakup or relationship fail? “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.” Kahlil Gibran. For the most part, this short sentence is tossed out into the wind without much thought. Much less an actual hope of the return of that loved someone.
Our story is when love returns. It may be cliché, it may be incredibly cheesy, but the truth of this quote resonates with our love story. Chris Burks and I, my name is Charity Hester, met 15 years ago. Much, much younger and a lot less wise than what we thought we were at the time. As relationships sometimes end up, we struggled and after 2 years chose the paths that led in opposite directions. For over a decade we never saw one another, or spoke or even wrote a letter to the other. As the quote goes, “let them go, for if they return, they were always yours…”
4 years ago, in May of 2012, our return happened. It came with hope, controversy, and change. What our lives had been separately had surely molded us into different, stronger, beings. Souls not willing to give up or leave or let mountainous molehills be the deciding factor in a life decision. Isn’t that what adults are supposed to do? Good times and bad times be there for the other part of the equation? Their love equaling no zeros? In our 1st year together again, we had a son, Kinsey Uriah, born at 24 weeks old on Dec. 16, 2012 and passing on May 1, 2013. We spiraled downward and lifted one another back up. Life is hard. Love is harder. Loss is exquisitely beautiful.
We were blessed with a healthy and bouncing baby girl, Alexis Elizabeth, on Jan. 7, 2015. She is the perfect addition to our family. With loving big sisters Abi and Allyson and a big brother Ethan, she is the almost last piece of the puzzle. I honestly cannot determine a valid reason as to why we have not wed to this point in our relationship…it’s perfectly ok to wait, to savor the moments leading to marriage. To enjoy and appreciate the vows of matrimony with the one…the one that returned.
