48 Hrs...

...is all I get to spend with my guy every week. That's it. Two whole days. I was thinking about this while I was driving back to Nashville from Tuscaloosa late Sunday afternoon. I had just spent the weekend there visiting my family and spending time with my guy.

We had just spent the weekend doing our pre-martial counseling and apartment hunting. It was a busy weekend and by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I couldn't believe it was time for me to get back on the road to head home. It's always so hard when it's time to say good-bye. Especially when our good-byes are said at the gas station where I fill up my car for my return to trip home. It's not the most romantic place to kiss my fiancee good bye...especially when you have people who are looking at you and saying, "Get a room!". :) We have to cram so much stuff in our weekends together that it just flies by. I know that we aren't the only long distance couples and I know that we are actually more lucky than most since we do get to see each other every week. But this isn't about other long distance relationships...its about mine.

For fifteen months, Alan and I have been driving back and forth from Tuscaloosa to Nashville. That's four hours one way and eight hours round trip (longer if there has been an accident or construction). I actually did the trip distance on my car for the first time this weekend and from Tuscaloosa to my door is a little over 250 miles. That's 500 miles every weekend we are driving. Let me tell you, I know every exit between here and there and not because I stop at them (I don't) I just see them every other weekend and they have been engraved in my brain.

I can't tell you how many severe storms and snowstorms we have driven through this past year and a half. I'm terrified of storms and there were trips that I would pray the entire time for the Lord to keep me safe and my car on the road. I have felt the Lord's protection over both of us because so far He has kept us safe during our travels. The only horrible thing that has happened was Alan's little Acura broke down in Birmingham.

But after fifteen months of dating we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In two months and one week I will walk down the aisle and marry the man of my dreams and all the long hours on the road, the nightly talks on the phone, the constant texting during the day and the long passionate kisses at the gas station will come to an end.

Did I get tired of all the driving alone? Did I get tired of never spending at weekend at my own house? Did I get tired of living in a suitcase? Did I get tired of driving in blinding rain and dodging tornadoes? Yes, I did. But you know what? I would do it all again tomorrow if it meant having Alan in my life.