Our First Kiss

This weekend marks the 12th anniversary of the first kiss between my husband and me. Let me tell you, it was quite memorable . . .

We had been dating for about a month, which, in college time, is more like six months because you see each other constantly. And I had reeeeeeeeeeeeeally been wanting him to kiss me for, oh, about . . . well, pretty much that whole time. But he was very much the gentleman, always only kissing my hand when it came time to say good-night. This was very, very sweet. I knew he was wanting to be careful with my heart and certain about our feelings for each other before sealing it with a kiss. But I think he was toying with me a little bit, too.

So this was all during the time that I was president of the Baptist Student Union at Mississippi College, and we were having a retreat at Twin Lakes on this particular weekend. Since I was one of the main ones planning this event, I got to pick my planning committee, which just happened to include Kevin. And the theme of the retreat just happened to be about relationships. (Awwww)

Everyone knows that you don't actually sleep while on a college retreat. A bunch of us stayed up really late talking and laughing in the lodge where we held our meetings. As the night went on, more and more people gave in to the urge to go to sleep, but Kevin and I held out. For some reason we ended up hanging out in the kitchen. It was very dark. And it was about 4:00 in the morning.

We had been standing there talking for a very long time, and we had our arms around each other a lot of that time. (Why am I feeling embarrassed right now?) Kevin would get, I thought, really close to kissing me but wouldn't follow through.

And then it happened.

Honestly, I don't remember what he said before he kissed me. I just remember being so excited that he did it! It was such a great kiss.

And then the other thing happened.

All of a sudden, the outside door FLEW OPEN, and these blinding fluorescent overhead lights (Remember we had been standing in the dark.) were thrown on. We quickly pulled away from each other, squinting and blinking and shielding our eyes, until we could finally identify the silhouette of . . . the cafeteria lady.

Who knew that they came in so early to start making biscuits???

As Kevin will tell you, I was completely mortified. After a quick "Good morning" to the lady, we hastily made our exit and then went and sat on a bench overlooking the lake. Kevin says that I didn't look at him or speak to him for an hour. And he wondered if our first kiss may have been our last. He was so baffled by my reaction and assured me that that lady's walking in on us was not a terrible thing (and that it most likely wasn't the first time she'd walked in on people kissing at camp).

I was mainly worried, I told him, that she thought we were doing more than just kissing. Here I was a leader on this retreat about godly relationships, and I got caught kissing a boy in the dark! Obviously, it's very funny now. Time gives a much better perspective on these things. But later that morning, I most certainly didn't make eye contact with the lady who put a biscuit on my tray.

Oh--and it wasn't our last kiss.