Love Story: Ali and Josh Navin

It was July 2016. Scarcely had a month passed since I had left the Marine Corps when I met the love of my life.

On a last-minute invitation, I decided to go to a Spokane Indians game with some friends. While standing in the concessions line, I happened to glance over at who was obviously the most beautiful woman in Avista Stadium. She had on green shorts, a black T-shirt, and gave a smile that was better than any home run hit that day.

But tragedy befell my racing heart as I saw she stood in line with another man. I made my way back to my seat and came to terms that I might never see her again.

As fate would have it, the brunette beauty was sitting in the same row as me, but we were separated by a tunnel. I spent the rest of the game glancing over to catch brief glimpses of her. I just wanted to make sure she was still there.

Ali sat in a group, and I wasn’t sure how I could approach her, so I enlisted the help of my 3-year-old niece and began blatantly walking nearby with her hand in mine in order to garner Ali’s attention. Now, it is very awkward to approach a large group of people you don’t know at a baseball game to introduce yourself, so you are probably wondering how we finally did meet. Thankfully, this is Spokane. It is the biggest small town, and we all have mutual friends in some regard that connect us.

We were able to find each other on Facebook through mutual connections. It turns out, Ali went to Central Valley High School, and I went to University High School. We were separated by two years, but our friend groups had overlapped on multiple occasions. We never met in high school but shared many experiences completely ignorant of the other’s existence.

Ali and I met face to face two days after that fateful game. We haven’t separated since. I proposed to her one year , 364 days later at another Spokane Indians game in the sweltering July sun while Ali was pregnant with our first child.

I’m a carpenter and Ali is a full-time stay -at -home mom. We’ve never been what you call rich, but my treasure is found in this small family of ours. We now have two kids, Isabella and Hudson, and a dog. Our modest home has everything we need, and we don’t ask for much. What has kept us going through the turbulent years of our relationship is a mutual respect for each other, and genuine heart to love no matter what. We like to think that love is a choice. Our feelings come and go; the key to success is waking up every day and choosing to love one another. No matter what the previous day brought, before I leave for work, I always kiss Ali and my kids goodbye.

I guess what I should say is that the love we share is not some grand gesture. It is not some Titanic adventure. It is, however, a peacefulness. I know that Ali is always there. She is my life partner, my best friend, the person I come home to every night, and the mother of my children. As I am writing this, it is Sunday morning. I am drinking coffee and reading the newspaper while the kids and my wife are sitting on the couch just relaxing. This feeling of contentment is all I could ask for. I choose this life over anything. I choose Ali.