1. 1. MULTIGENRE LIFE STORYPROJECTFor My Amazing Husband,ChadWith Love From Your Wife,Sarah
2. 2. AUTHORMy name is Sarah Blanton. I am 26 years old and aUNCC student studying Elementary Education with aconcentration in Social Studies. I have always had a lovefor children and cant wait to be a teacher. When I amnot at school or hanging out with children, I love tospend time with my friends, family, and my wonderfulhusband, Chad. I am writing this for my husband toshow him how much I love, adore, and cherish him as apart of my life. This is a story of our journey together.This is intended for my husband and I to look at andreflect on our wonderful life together.
3. 3. CHADA P O E MHe is from a big family. He is one of four siblings. He is the secondoldest in his family. He is the glue that holds his family together. He isstrong. He is wise beyond his years. He is a Godly man that loves theLord and serves Him daily. He is kind and good to all he knows. He isa generous man who gives to those in need. He is a hard worker. He isa provider. He is a comforter and friend. He is a man who loves tomake people happy. He is a loving and caring man.He is my best friend. He is the one who makes me laugh. He is theone who holds me when I cry. He is my rock in hard times. He is theleader of our family. He is my protector. He is the shoulder I lean on.He is to be an amazing father to our future children. He is myeverything.HE is my Husband.
4. 4. HOW WE MET AND BEGAN TODATEA N I N F O R M A T I O N A L P I E C EChad and I met each other at a church bible study. I was babysitting for the family that was hosting itand he was attending it. We just were briefly introduced at that time. He was dating someone at the timeand so was I. I saw him on and off at church but never really spoke with him at all. We did not reallysee each other until a year later when I attended a bible study. I was not aware it was his house but onceI walked in and met everyone I realized he was there. He for some reason was under the impression thatI was a teenager and did not talk with me a church because he thought I was a lot younger than I reallywas. We began to talk and hung out for the first time on his birthday with a bunch of his friends. We didnot get to talk very much during the his birthday party. However, later he called me and asked me onour first date. On our first date, he made me dinner and we watched a movie at his house. We left thenight with a kiss and went of a few more dates after that. He asked me to be his girlfriend on January1, 2010 and I said yes. We have been together ever since.!
5. 5. OUR DATING ADVENTURE
6. 6. OUR FIRST BABYR I L E Y
7. 7. OUR 1 YEAR DATINGANNIVERSARYT H E L E T T E R W R I T T E N I N S I D E O U R A N N I V E R S A R Y P H O T OB O O KChad, January, 2011The very first time I met you, I knew there was something special about you! And over the past yearof dating, I have fallen in love with the amazing man you are. You are my best friend who knowseverything about me. You are the first person I want to talk to in the morning and the last one Iwant to talk to before bed. You are always there for me in everyway, good and bad. You are anamazing man of God and I love your kind and giving heart. You are the love of my life and I amtruly blessed by God to have you as my own! I love you more than you will ever know! Thank youfor loving me always! I made this book so that we can always remember our journey together! I loveyou!Love Always,Sarah
8. 8. THE PROPOSALM A R C H 1 2 , 2 0 1 1
9. 9. The Day That Changed My Life ForeverA Narrative PieceIt was a beautiful spring day when Chad and I arrived in Charleston. We had planned a wonderful weekend tocelebrate my spring break from school and it was finally here! I was so excited to experience Charleston for the firsttime with Chad. We were so excited to go and explore that we got up early to get some coffee and walk by the waterfront park. Once we had walked the water way, we made our way over to the Marketplace in the center of town. I wasso excited to go shopping and see all the unique knickknacks the market stands offered. We shopped for most of theday, walking up and down the streets looking at in stores and just enjoying being together. However, while this was allgoing on Chad had been constantly on his phone texting all morning and it was starting to drive me nuts. Who areyou texting so much? I asked. He responded, Oh, no one, just one of the guys. They were talking to me about thegame last night. That answer was fine to me and I paid it no more attention. Later that day, we went back to ourhotel room and relaxed before our carriage tour and dinner reservations. As I was getting ready, Chad asked if I wouldwant to get dressed up for dinner, like dress and suit dressy. I said yes and we got all dressed up for dinner. As we leftthe room, I saw he had a wrapped present with him. I asked him what it was and he said it was a present to celebratemy spring break. He said we would it at dinner. It was the shape of a book or something like that. So I was interestedto see what it was. We made our way to meet up with our carriage tour. I was so excited. I had never been inCharleston before and was going to get to see the heart of the city in a carriage at sunset. How luck am I?!
10. 10. Our carriage tour started just as the sun began to set. The guide told us all the history ofCharleston and what the buildings were. When we came up to the water front park, the guidestopped the carriage and said that people usually like to get out and walk around for a minute.So we got out and walked around the park. While we walked, Chad said that he wanted me tohave my spring break present now, so we sat down on a bench in front of a pineapplefountain. Chad gave me the present and asked me to open it. As I unwrapped it, I saw that itwas a book. It was a picture book of all of our photos we have taken together while we hadbeen dating. As I turned the pages, some of the pages had bible verses that talked aboutmarriage. I thought it was so sweet of him to make me this book and felt bad because I hadmade something similar for him for Valentines Day and his was much better than mine. Itruly did not click with me that this was a proposal book until I reached the last page. Andthere on the last page was a picture of Chad holding a ring and it said, Will you marry me?When I went to look at Chad, he was on one knee and holding the very same ring in thepicture and asked me to marry him. I was honestly so shocked, I was crying and shaking. Icouldnt even talk. I had no idea.
11. 11. I of course said yes and we kissed and hugged. The people around us cheered and took picture bythe fountain for us. As we made our way back to the carriage to be on time for our dinnerreservations, I told him I wanted to call my mom and dad. I told him surely my mom does notknow because otherwise I would have known the proposal was coming. She cant keep a secret!Chad told me she knew and he just wanted to wait to call everyone until after dinner so we couldenjoy our time together. So I agreed and we hopped back in the carriage and went to eat dinner.When we arrived at the restaurant, Chad gave them our name and the hostess looked puzzled by itfor some reason. I told Chad, Do you think they dont have our reservation? He said, No, theydo. So we wait a minute and the hostess said, Blanton for 2, oh yes, right this way. I thought shewas a bit weird, but whatever. So we followed her to our table. She took us past all of these tablesand then past the kitchen. I told Chad, Where is she taking us? And just as I said that, we turnthe corner into a small room. There in the room were both Chad and Is whole families waiting forus. I was so shocked. I immediately started to cry. In fact I cried for almost a half an hour. I couldnot believe it! Now it all made sense, Chad was texting all day to our families to tell them where wewere so we wouldnt run into to them. What an amazing man I get to married I thought! Withboth our families there, we had an engagement party right there and celebrated long into the night.
12. 12. THE WEDDINGO C T O B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 1
13. 13. OUR VOWS TO EACH OTHERW R I T T E N T O G E T H E RI, take you, to be my wedded husband/wife, knowing in my heart that you will be myconstant friend, my faithful partner on life, and my one true love. I will cherish our friendshipand love you today, tomorrow, and forever. God has prepared me for you and I promise tolove you without reservation. Comfort you in times of distress, encourage you to achieve allyour goals, laugh with you and cry with you, grow with you in mind and spirit, always be openand honest with you, and cherish you always. I promise to live a life of faith and hope inChrist Jesus. As I have given you my hand to hold, so I give you my life to keep. Throughoutlife, no matter what may lie ahead of us, I pledge to you my life as a loving a faithfulhusband/wife, as long as we both shall live.
14. 14. THE MARRIAGE
15. 15. I THINK I AM READY. ARE YOU?A P E R S U A S I V E P I E C EWe have been married a little over a year and feel it is time to talk about babies. I want to talk about havingchildren and think I am ready. I feel I am a very responsible adult and have a lot of experience with childrenwhich would make me a great mom. I also think since we have been married over a year and we are in our mid-twenties it is the perfect time to be thinking about having children. Now I know that you are not so found of theidea happening right this moment in our lives, because I need to finish school and we need a bigger house. I canunderstand all of those things but think there will never be the right time to have a baby and we could alwaysfind something that we need to fix or do before we think about having children. I feel like I need something littleto take care of that is my own and needs me. And just think, the baby might look like you and cool would it beto have a little Chad walking around! I know you are so great with children and I am just so ready to start afamily of our own. I know we can be good parents. You know how much I love children and I truly just wantone of my own that looks like us and that we can pour our love into. Please consider the thought of us starting afamily soon!
16. 16. NO BABIES YET, BUT A PUPPYWE CAN DO!After much talking about whether or not tohave children, we decided to wait until nextyear and got a baby puppy instead! So I didget a baby, just a puppy baby which was fineby me!.Lacie Lou Blanton is the newestmember of the Blanton family. She came tous on Christmas morning when yousurprised me with her sitting in a basketunder the Christmas tree. She is our babydog and I love her! Thank you sweetheart!
17. 17. DEAR CHADLY,A L E T T E RI have had an amazing journey with you of the past year and half marriage. I have learned so much about myself inbeing with you. You bring out the best in me and push me to accomplish all my goals in life and I love you for it. We arebeen through so much in this short time we have been married. You have been all the things you promised to me in oursvows and more! I am so very grateful and thankful for you in my life. We are have had mostly really great times and havebeen blessed beyond belief with the things God has given us in our lives. We have also had hard times in our marriage.The loss of first baby dog Riley rocked our world. It was a terrible time in our family and so very hard to over come. Buttogether we did. That experience helped us to grow stronger as a couple and benefitted our marriage greatly. We arestronger than before and I know that we can together face anything that may come our way. I want to thank you forloving as you do. I dont know how I am so blessed to have you as my best friend and husband, but I am forever grateful!Thank you for supporting in me in all I do and for providing me with a great home and w wonderful life. I am so excitedfor what lies ahead for us. We are getting ready to move into a new stage in our life, :a move to a bigger house andplanning for future Blanton babies. I cannot wait to share all of this with you and I am excited for many more years ofsharing life together. I love you more than you will ever know.! Love your wife , Sarah