Chalanda & Matthew

Matthew and Chalanda Samec
Married May 28, 2005

Love doesn't always read like a fairytale. It's not always by the book and sometimes there are pieces that don't seem to fit until you see the big picture. I met my husband, Matthew, of four years through a very dear friend of mine. They were both attending Sowela and they were enrolled in the Culinary Arts program. One day, she suggested that he and I meet and the least I can say is that it wasn't love at first sight. We met at a local hot spot and he seemed uninterested. The night progressed and soon we both parted ways. I didn't think anything of the meeting until a few days later when I received a phone call. It was Matt. He invited me to hang out, but I wasn't familiar with the area he was in. So, he offered to meet up with me somewhere so that he could show me the way. To make a long story still long, but not as long as it really is, the meeting didn't go as planned. We both waited to meet each other for an hour. It just so happened to not be the same hour. We both thought the other had stood the other up! At the end of the fiasco, I called him and told him that he was a jerk and to never to call me again! Normally that would be the end of this story, but... As fate would have it, he called a few weeks later. By that time, luckily for him, I had almost forgotten about the incident and he asked me to dinner. After that night, we knew there was a connection between us. Ironically, we had very little in common. We were such opposites that it didn't make sense for there to be an attraction, but we couldn't stay away from one another. Our time together seemed to go on for a lifetime, but it was only 3 short months before we were engaged. He was so nervous when he proposed. He didn't know what knee he was supposed to kneel on, so he got down on both knees to make sure that he got the right one! It was the most sweetest act of romance that I had ever seen. (I still pick on him about it to this day!) We hadn't been engaged long, maybe two or three months, when Matt suddenly fell extremely ill. We thought he had caught a virus and that it would pass, but that wasn't the case. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and I thought that I was going to lose my darling fiance'. He stayed in the hospital for close to eight months. None of the local doctors could tell us what was wrong with him. He couldn't eat. He couldn't drink. He had wasted away before my very eyes. It hurt so badly to see him suffer, but I couldn't leave his side. I was truly afraid that if I left, I would never see him again. I rushed him to the Diagnostic Center in Houston, TX to see a man who, in my eyes, is an angel sent from God. He diagnosed Matt with Crohn's
Disease and got him on the road to recovery. We've been together for close to seven years now and we have three gorgeous children. Every moment of every day is something to be thankful for. I believe whole-heartedly that God meant for us to grow and learn from our past experience. We both realize that every day is special. I love my husband and I can't imagine life without him.
Chalanda Samec