The Long Awaited 1st Kiss

The long awaited first kiss?

The real question before us now is would either one of us overcome our shyness to attempt such a bold move? If so then who would make the first move?

On the afternoon of my arrival in Minnesota (Feburary 12, 2001) we were sitting around looking at some old photos, giggling and laughing, when it happened........WE KISSED for the very first time.

Finally after 16 years, 7 months and 19 days (a span of 6,077 days) from the day we first met we shared our first kiss. It was so amazing......oh the wonderful feelings that went through my body during that kiss.

The feelings that I felt in my heart during that moment reassured me of the feelings that I had always had for Christa all these years. There are so many wonderful things that could describe Christa but the one that word that says it all is that she's PERFECT!

The Long Walk Up The Gangway

(February 12, 2001) It was my first ever visit to Minnesota.....my first visit ever to see Christa.......our first time seeing one another in 15 years.

When I stepped off the plane onto the gangway leading up to the airport my heart started racing. It was that time? The time had come for Christa and I to meet face to face after all these years?

It felt like it took me forever to walk up the gangway, I was so ready to see her. As I approached the doorway leading into the terminal there she was.....I saw Christa standing there waiting for me? My first impression was "Oh My God, She is so Beautiful."

I walked through the door exiting the gangway into the terminal of the airport and it happened......we greeted one another with a big hug. It was the first time since we were kids that we had held each other in our arms. It was magical, it was like we went from being 18 and 16 years old to 32 and 30 years old instantly.

So just like that the long awaited visit had finally arrived.........and now it was time for the reunion to start!

The Big Reunion

The BIG day has arrived and I'm Nervous and Scared all at the same time.

My flight, scheduled to depart at 12:10 pm, was delayed leaving Atlanta, Georgia due to a mechanical problem. I was finally able to get on another flight that left at 1:10 pm.

The flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota took about 2 hours. I sat there thinking about what our first impressions and actions were going to be. I wondered if we would be as shy as we were 15 years ago when we last saw each other. I was even worried if we would recognize one another when I got off the plane.

When the flight crew announced that we were decending into the Minneapolis area and would be landing shortly I started getting really nervous. My hands became sweaty and I started getting butterflies in my stomach. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming and to be sure that what was about to happen was really happening. I couldn't grasp the reality that I was only minutes away from seeing Christa again after so many years.

When my plane landed I was so nervous, I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. I took a few deep breaths and realized in a few moments I was going to be reunited with the love of my life. I remember saying to myself that wishes really do come true and thanked God for allowing this day to finally come.

Summer Love

Love comes in all shapes and sizes but the summer of 2000 brought the greatest love of all.........It was the first time that Christa and I had told each other that we loved one another. Wow, 16 years since we met and we finally get around to letting each other know that we were in love with each other.

We spent the rest of the year continuously talking about when we were going to be able to see each other again. It was all about the timing and we couldn't get the timing right to see each other before the end of the year.

In late December of 2000 we were finally able to come up with a date for our first visit together, since our last in July of 1986. We decided that February 12 - 15, 2001 was the right time. So now my feelings for Christa just hit another high as it was real now that we were going to see each other again after 14 years and 7 months since our last visit.

The feelings that were going through my body.......EXCITED because I was going to get to see Christa. SCARED because I didn't know what she was going to think about me when she saw me again. NERVOUS because we hadn't been together in so long I didn't know how to act around her. HAPPY beacuse I was going to get to spend four days with the girl that is my hearts only desire.

Same Place But Seperate Times

The one place I have always wanted to share with Christa is Hawaii. It's the one place that we both wanted to share together. But in the early 2000 we both discovered that we both would be traveling to Hawaii within two months of each other.

Christa was the first to visit Hawaii.....we talked every night while she was there. She told me how she would sit on the beach and think about us as she drew our names in the sand. I remember her telling me she found the hotel I was going to be staying in and she walked every floor touching each door knob wondering which room was I going to be staying in.

Christa did the most amazing thing while she was there! She found a way to leave a little something of us behind. She found a store that allowed you to write something on their floor for a small fee.......she wrote "Christa & Jimbo, forever in our hearts."

Two months later it was my turn. I left for Hawaii and the entire trip I was wishing Christa was with me! Call me silly but I went to the hotel she stayed at several times just to touch the door knob of the room that she had touched just a few weeks before.

Each evening I would walk the beach looking out above Diamond Head starring at the moon and thinking about Christa and how much I loved her. Each night I thought of wanting to do something special for us just as Christa did? It finally came to me and one morning I drove up to Diamond Head and walked the trails to the top (a 45 minute hike) to the observation point. At the top of Diamond Head I placed our names "Christa and Jimbo, together forever" on a rock for all the world to see.

So in a small way Christa and I both left a large part of our feelings for one another in Hawaii until the day comes that we both can return together to experience the love and romance that the real Hawaii has to offer.

A Special Phone Call

It was late October 1999......I received a special phone from none other, the love of my life, CHRISTA! I was so surprised to hear from her but was super glad that I did. That phone call was the one call that changed the course of our relationship!

For the first time in the 15 years of knowing each other we FINALLY told each other how we felt about one another and come to find out we had had the same feelings for each other all along. Yipee!

This one phone call set the stage to a wonderful beginning for us. Alot of people would question how you could have such strong feelings for someone when you have only seen them twice in 15 years, especially when we met when I was 16 and she was 13 and the last time we saw one another I was 18 and she was 15.

Everyone has heard of the word fate? Well I knew in my heart that fate brought us together! Fate over the years continued to allow us to stay in touch and continued to allow us to have the feelings we have had for one another all these years. Fate would be responsible for keeping each other in others heart for all these years!

Always follow your heart......the heart NEVER lies. My heart has always sent messages to my mind which in turn sent messages back letting it know she was the one that my heart belonged to.

Time Passes Us By

Christa and I somehow let time pass us by......we communicated every once in a while with periods of more than year going by without talking. No matter how long we went in between the times we talked I continued to think about Christa just as much as I always had.

As the years went by I missed what we had. I missed the times that we were so lucky to share together. Some how we drifted our own seperate ways but we would never forget about one another no matter what. Christa was in my heart and there she was planning to stay. I knew that there would never be another person to ever touch my life like she has.

I still continued to day dream everyday about the day that we would see one another again. The only question was when and where would that special moment be.

Tragedy Strikes More Ways Than One

When tragedy strikes it truely strikes in more ways than one!

December 5, 1986 was truely MY BLACK FRIDAY........This date will never be forgotten as this was the day my dad suddenly died from a massive heart attack shortly before 6:30 pm. It's amazing how death has no boundaries or rules and no warning signs for that matter. As in my case, I was sitting there carrying on a conversation with my dad one minute and come back into the room several minutes later and find him laying down on the couch, what appeared to be sleeping, but deceased.

Within a few days I received a phone call from the one person that meant the world to me. When Christa called to check on me after she had learned my dad had died, that meant the world to me. It also meant alot to me that after her dad found out about my dads passing that he went home and told her. Christa's family is truely wonderful!

After talking to Christa on the phone reality started to set in? I was never going to see Christa again since I would not be going on anymore Farm Bureau trips. I started thinking was this the end of us? Would we still keep in touch? Would we really see each other again one day. For the moment all I could think about was due to this tragedy it caused me to lose 2 of the 3 people that meant everything in the world to me.

After all I had gone through losing my dad, I would soon learn that I hadn't lost Christa. We continued to write back and forth and call one another every now and then.

No Doubt We Belong Together

We spent each of the 3 nights that we had together walking the area around the Grove Park Inn, (See Picture). Each night brought wonderful talks and slow strolls through the woods under a moonlite sky. We were inseperatable, always holding hands.

We talked about the bears in the mountains not realizing that Christa was scared of them. Sje kept telling me that there was no bears in these mountains. I guess being from Iowa you wouldn't see any bears? I spent alot of time scaring Christa that I was hearing bears in the brush because she would aways hold me close to her so they wouldn't get her.

As I mentioned above that we were always holding hands.......thats true. What I know now is that we both thought alot about kissing one another but were to scared to do it. We were the same now as we were 2 years ago when we first met but now I had just turned 18 and Christa was a few months away from turning 16.

So many times while we walked under the stars I wanted to stop and turn Christa towards me and for us to share our FIRST kiss together but it would not happen. We ended our time together just as we did 2 years earlier.......no kiss, hating to say goodbye and wondering when we were going to see each other again!

I knew when my heart started hurting shortly after Christa left for home that she was my true love! When you can develope feelings for someone that you first meet, only spend several days with then, not see them again for 2 years and think about them constantly and then have the same feelings and plus some when you do see them again then you know it's true love!

We Still Have It

We still have what we had when we last saw each other 2 years ago! We hung out together every moment we had walking around the resort. We went back to our little way of flirting with one another by bumping each other into walls while we walked around the resort. It didn't take long before we were holding hands again.

Everyone with the Farm Bureau Convention went on a sight-seeing visit to the Biltmore House (see picture). Christa and I ended up hanging out together and we walked through the gardens, the mansion grounds and stayed outside walking around the brewery while the adults toured the inside.

It was during this trip that I was saddened by the news from Christa's seester (thats how they say it) of the loss of their mother just a month before. It hurt me in more ways than one......not being able to be there for Christa bothered me because her family meant the world to me even though I had only known them for a short period of time.

There is no doubt in my heart.......My heart truely belongs to Christa!

A Shock and Surprise At The Same Time

Never knew what shocked and surprised all at the same time felt like until now?

It was on a Sunday, June 29, 1986 and we had just left Dillard, Georgia where we had stayed the night before on our way to Asheville, North Carolina for the annual Farm Bureau Convention. I had looked at the convention roster many times before but had to look at it one more time. No matter how many times I looked at that roster I remained sad and empty inside because Christa's name was not on it. At that point I wondered if I would ever get to see her again.

We arrived at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC around 1 pm and checked in. I decided to go walking around the resort checking out what all there was to do. I started off walking through the lobby area following the signs to the pool which brought me to a long hallway. As I made my way down the hallway I came to an open area that overlooked the indoor pool below. I stopped to look at the pool area and noticed two girls swimming in the pool and then it hit me! (I thought to myself) OH MY GOD that looks like Christa and I took off running down towards the end of the hallway not realizing it was a deadend.

I stood there a moment scared and nervous wondering if it really was Christa? I thought if it was her what was I going to say to her as I was very shy. I was really nervous just thinking about having to walk back down that hallway and past the pool area again. I told myself that it couldn't have been Christa because she would have written to me telling me she would be at the convention. I was WRONG! As I turned the corner to go up the hallway....BAM! I ran slap into Christa who had jumped out of the pool and came running after me.

Talking about shocked and surprised!!!! What a way to run into someone you haven't seen in 2 years! It was still hard to believe that Christa was standing right in front of me and even though she was wearing a wet towel and her hair was soaking, she was still as beautiful as ever! It was so great seeing her......I was so glad that she had made it to the convention. My only concern now was did we still have what we had when we last saw one another 2 years ago............

Thoughts Of Christa Nightly

Each evening I went out to the lake (Lake Tahoe) and sat there looking at the sunset and thinking about Christa.

I remember saying a prayer that Christa would always be a part of my life and hoped that one day we would be together!

It's still unexplainable how after only spending 3 days with Christa and now it's been a year that we haven't seen one another that I have these strong feelings for her.

It's like the old saying that "you'll know when you have met the right person". I have. I have met Christa Burns......the one that puts the spark in my life and makes my heart keep on beating!

My last night in Lake Tahoe I sat there by the lake and wished upon the brightest star that I could find and wished that next year (1986) Christa would be at the next Farm Bureau Convention in Asheville, North Carolina.

Stayed In Touch Off and On

As time went on that first year after Christa and I met we stayed in touch quite a bit with letters and phone calls for several months and then they became less and less.

June of 1985 had rolled around and I hadn't heard from Christa in a while? It was getting close to our 1 year anniversary of meeting and the next Farm Burea Convention was approaching and I hadn't heard if she was going to be attending.

It was time to leave for the trip? This years convention was being held in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and no word from Christa? My parents and I flew to San Francisco, California for a few days before going to Lake Tahoe. I thought about Christa the whole time wondering if she was going to be there?

When we arrived in Lake Tahoe, Nevada I couldn't do anything but walk aound hoping to run into Christa. I searched almost the entire day and when she didn't show up for the opening night dinner I knew then that she didn't come this year. I was really dissappointed that she wasn't there! I had all my hopes up that we would be together again!

While in Lake Tahoe I thought about Christa the entire time. I wondered if we would ever see each other again? I wondered what she was doing? I wondered if she missed me as much as I missed her? So many qustions but few little answers.........I could only hope for the best!

The First Thing I Did

The first thing I did the day I got home from Wisconsin was find the first pay phone and I called Christa! I was so nervous! Actually I was scared to death!! I remember dialing the number and then hanging up scared wondering who would answer the phone? Yes, I was nervous to talk to Christa but I was more nervous wondering if her parents were going to aswer the phone and what they would think about me calling their daughter from so far away.

I finally dialed the number and it started ringing.......I can't remember which parent answered but I do remember asking for Christa and was told to hold on? Ohhhh, the nervous feeling I had waiting? What was I going to say? How was I going to start the conversation off? And then there it was, the sweetest sound a person could here! The beautiful voice of Christa saying hello.

We talked for a while and talked about anything and everything? I remember thinking that I sure didn't won't this phone call to end. I really missed her, she said she really missed me......I really hated the distance that was between us (Iowa & Georgia) because I couldn't just go see her when I wanted. It made the desire to want to be with her greater.

We vowed to one another that we would always keep in touch!

A Sad Good-Bye!

Day 3 - Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (June 27, 1984).......This was a day that I honestly did not want to see come. It was the day that I had to say good-bye to Christa! We met up before having to leave the resort to go home and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. This was truly a very sad day in my life, I never wanted our trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to end.

When I had to say good-bye to Christa I honestly felt like I was going to die. My heart hurt, I felt so empty on the inside. I know we had only known each other for three days but deep down I knew Christa was the one that I was supposed to be with the rest of my life.

I was in love with her from the first moment I saw her. My heart fluttered the first time I heard her sweet, midwestern voice speak. From the moment we met she won my heart over, she truly owned my heart from day one.

I know you have heard of a long ride home.....this was a LONG ride home. I kept thinking would I ever get to see Christa again. I wondered if she would be at next years convention in Lake Tahoe. I thought about Christa every minute and the closer that we got home the more anxious I became because I knew the first thing I was going to do when I got home was call her!

Excited To See The Sun Come Up!

Day 2 - Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (June 26, 1984): I remember being so excited when I woke up that morning......I rememeber getting dressed and going to the lobby waiting for Christa. I was so excited when she finally showed up. The morning started out again with our little way of flirting with one another but it wasn't long before we were holding hands again.

This date was only the second day of knowing each other but it was also our last full day to spend together as we would both be going home tomorrow. We started the day off just walking around the resort spending time together.

After lunch we all went on an adventure......we went skeet shooting! I remember we rode in a brown station wagon that belonged to this couple from South Carolina who had a daughter named Beth. Mentioning Beth, she got with my friend Tim from Alabama, and they both were with us. Christa and I sat in the very back of the WAGON where there was more room and where we could hold hands in private. (Holding hands was the big thing back then). We all had a great time.

After dinner we all (Tim, Beth, Christa and I) went walking around the resort. Some how Christa and I got seperated from Tim and Beth and we ended up trying to find them but were unsuccessful. Christa and I finally went out back of the resort to a lake that sat down near the golf course and sat on the picnic bench looking up at the moon and watching the lightning storm that was in the distance. We didn't realize it was a fast moving storm coming our way as we ended up having to run back to the resort trying to out run the rain........we got wet!

We laughed so much over that as we tried to dry off. We spent the rest of the night jut walking and talking hoping the night would never end! Unfortunately the night would come to an end and we had to say goodnight but promised to see each other tomorrow before we both left the resort to go home.