A Mother's Pain, A Daughter's Gain

Thank Goodness for Bunions

Tomorrow, Barron and I will celebrate 7 months of marriage. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and join the rest of the world with my very own blog. Since most people don’t celebrate 7 months of marriage after knowing each other for only 10 months, I thought I would start out by sharing our story.

It all started a little over two years ago, my mother, Debi Dugger had some really sore feet. She had been putting off going to the doctor about her bunions and had finally decided to go. The doctor she had set an appointment with was with the same group of doctors who previously operated on my grandmother’s bunions several years ago so she had heard they were an excellent group of podiatrists. As she sat in the waiting room she was expecting to see Dr. Douglas Elleby, a well-known, experienced doc in the podiatric world. Instead, much to her surprise, a very handsome, young man walked through the door. It was Dr. Douglas Elleby’s son, Dr. Barron Elleby. He looked as though he must have been fresh out of residency, she thought. As they talked and laughed together, the two of them had quite the connection. Debi who never meets a stranger, was warmed by Barron’s sweet smile and gentle touch of her sore swollen feet. After a handful of appointments, Barron had one thing in mind, bunion surgery. Debi had something else on her mind, her young, single daughter J It wasn’t long before Debi was picking up the phone to call her daughter (that would be me) to tell her how much she adored this cute new doctor of hers and how sweet and kind he was.

During November of 2007 it was time for Pie in the Sky to open, the gift shop in Smyrna that my mother and I own and operate together. My mom had coaxed me into sending her cute new doctor a business email through our Pie in the Sky Myspace account because he had said he might need some holiday gift baskets for his staff members. A few professional emails were sent back and forth, ending with the conclusion that Barron would be in to visit the store after we opened. Months went by, Mom’s cute doc never set foot in the Pie. As the first year of the shop goes by, my mother continued to bring up Barron’s name, with the recurrent preface, “I’m going to hook you up with…” This was always a common occurrence with my mother, but usually a joke ending with a name such as, “Kenny Chesney,” “Billy Currington,” or the lastest , greatest country singer on the radio, not typically human flesh who lives and breathes in our community.

At this point, the name Barron Elleby, a face I had never seen in person, had become a legend in our household, something to laugh and joke about when I had had a bad day or even a bad date. October 2008 rolls around. It was the perfect time in my life for new beginnings, even my mother knew it. Moms are good at that sort of thing, sometimes too good. One afternoon I get the phone call, “You’ll never believe what I just did.” Moms can do some really silly things in the lives of their children, but I must say that this silly thing has changed my life forever. She had called to tell me that she emailed her podiatrist to tell him that “she thought he was cute and that her daughter was cute and that she thought they would be cute together.” Straight from the mouth of the world best first grade teacher who seems to have quite a way with words for children’s books.

And that’s where it all began, after almost a month of emails, without a single phone call, we met for our first blind date. During a 2 hour drive to Helen, we never stopped talking. Through dinner in an old house called I couldn’t stop smiling. And after a long walk through a star-filled sky at the North Georgia Corn Maze little did I know my life would never be the same. The rest is history. Three months later we married in Maui on January 27th 2009. From the flowers to the cake, to hula dancers, a butterfuly release and a ukulele player, Barron planned it all. He secretly flew both our parents in to surprise me and so my father could walk me down the aisle. Just 2 days before I had said goodbye to my mother on the way to elope with my wedding dress packed in my suitcase and tears in my eyes. It was a wedding I could have never even dreamed of, perfectly intimate, sweet, endearing and blessed by God. Some I know have called us crazy, but we call it love, brought together by God. We couldn’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together and didn’t want to waste any time. When people ask me how I knew, I tell them the same thing I have been told for years, “When you know, you know.” Barron makes my everyday wonderful and that is how I knew. Each morning I wake up to my best friend and I can’t wait for the day when I wake up to my best friend and the children that I hope God blesses us with. I thank God for all that He has done in our lives to prepare us for one another and for bringing us together.

I even thank Him for Bunions!