11 years and going strong...

Today, January 25,2008 is our 11th year Anniversary. Although we have really been together alot longer than that. Here is our story...







Thirty Two years ago Philip and Dalise Goodson were sitting in a meeting with there three month old first born son (Heath) was bouncing on their knees. In this meeting Ken Sumrall, the president of the college they had attended, was the speaker. During this meeting Mr. Sumrall made an announcement that his third granddaughter, Charis Gail Sumrall, had just been born. That was on December 31, 1975.






Twelve years later the Goodson family moved to the Birmingham, Alabama area. They were there to be a part of Liberty Church in Hoover. In the children's ministry at Liberty was a young girl named Charis, and she was only months away from moving up to the Youth Group. Everyone had noticed the new boys that had just started coming to Youth Group. All of the girls were talking about how cute Ricky was, but Charis had her eyes set on Heath. Heath and Charis met during a game of Hide and Seek when they were both running to hide and collided coming around the corner. Over the next few years Heath and Charis ran in the same circles with the same friends. At the age of 15, Heath dated one of Charis' closest friends and Charis was dating another boy in the youth group. When these two relationships ended they were both hurt and done with dating. Unbeknownst to either of them, they both told God, "I don't want to date again until it is the person you want for me to marry one day."

During Charis' junior year of high school and Heath's senior year of high school, Charis' mom offered Heath gas money if he would drive Charis and her sister home from school in the afternoons. Soon into the year, Angie (Charis' sister) started doing some tutoring after school. Heath and Charis started taking those opportunities to go to the library and do some schoolwork. Pretty soon because they were spending so much time together they started to flirt with one another, but both really did not want another relationship. One day at a Youth function (Putt Putt Golf) Heath asked Charis if she would be going to the junior/senior prom. They decided that they would go together. Heath and Charis spent more and more time together. Days before the Prom they decided that they really liked each other and would go to the dance as more than just friends. So Heath and Charis go to dinner with friends, then to the Prom and then back to his house with friends to watch movies, and then to a church high on a cliff overlooking the city to watch the sunrise. This was their first date. They continued a relationship through the Spring and Summer time.

One night they were talking on the phone. As they were saying goodbye Heath said "Just so you know, I don't love you." then Charis responded with "Oh, good 'cause I don't love you either." Remember they had both been hurt. In the fall, Heath was leaving for N.Y. to go to college and they decided that it would be silly to try and keep a long distance relationship going (besided college would be the place to find that special someone to marry.) For the next few months while he was gone they both tried to move on. At Christmas time Heath came back to Birmingham and over to Charis' house to talk. They decided to try the long distance thing, but to not say the words "I love you" unless they knew that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

Over the next three years, they were both in seperate states at seperate colleges and would only see each other on holidays and in the summer time. One day they were at their seperate colleges talking on the phone to each other. Heath says he has to go to get his haircut and Charis responds with "Ok. I love you." Suddenly there was a long silence on both ends of the phone. This silence seem to linger for a really long time. Then Heath cuts back in with I'll call you back, bye." For the next several hours Charis sat on her dorm room bed wondering why she had blurted that out. She knew that it was true, but was worried that he may not feel the same way. Meanwhile Heath was getting his haircut and torturing the poor hairstylist with his rantings of whether or not he felt the same way. Finally Heath calls her back. She had a huge sigh of relief when he told her that he loved her too. Later that year Heath graduated from Bible college and Charis left college with the intentions of not going back. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the two of them decided to spend their lives together and she had some emotional issues that had to be taken care of. In the late summer of 1996, Heath was working in Fairhope, Alabama as a youth pastor and brought some of the teens to Birmingham for a missions trip. While there he was able to get away for a little while for some alone time with Charis. He took her to the same cliff overlooking the city that they had gone to on their Prom night. He was standing behind her and they were both looking out over the cliff. Heath then reached into his pocket and pulled out the engagment ring that he had been trying very hard to hide from her. He reached around and put the ring in front of her face. There was a very long silence that seemed to stop all time. His heart dropped and then he looked and realized her eyes were closed. He told her to open her eyes and then she saw it. Her heart sunk and she spun around and hugged hime tightly. That was his way of asking for her to marry him and her way of say yes. Six months later they were married at the same church where they had grown up together. They knew that this was the beginning of a partnership that would last forever.

Over the next eleven years they went through many ups and downs. The hard times were very hard and the good times were very good. They had three wonderful children that are the joys of their life. Although they have met many obstacles that could have torn them apart, they always find a way to make their love stronger. That is the story of the last eleven years.