Adefolake Ayotunde-Salami
1 Corinthians 7:8-9 I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me. But if they can’t manage their desires and emotions, they should, by all means, go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.
Ayotunde told me he will come back to marry me in 2020, and I should just give him time to get himself together. I agreed as I also had several things I wanted to accomplish before marriage. I knew the only way to survive waiting for this handsome man of mine was to bury myself with work and keep building until he was ready. He went back to the UK in February 2018 and I could not see him again that year. By October 2018, I was consulting on a Federal Government project financed by an International Organization and this made me travel a lot but also allowed me to focus on work, plan, and prepare for my new role as a wife.
Leaving the University in 2014, I had listened to messages on marriage, read books and I can say I was fairly prepared but all this would have not made a difference if my Spiritual Father, Prophet Uebert Angel did not approve of Ayotunde. I know you are wondering why his approval was important to me? And why I didn’t get approval right when we started dating? Well, why do football players need a coach? Why do celebrities need a stylist? I guess that answers why I needed his approval. As regards why it took me that long? I wasn’t sure Ayotunde and myself would end up together. He had offered to give me a promise ring when he was going back in 2018 but I turned it down explaining it wasn’t common practice in Nigeria. Moreover, I did not want to be stuck with a ring. In so many ways, that motivated Ayotunde to make sure our relationship stayed strong because I had agreed to continue the relationship but turned down the promise ring. There was no way Ayotunde was going to meet my Biological dad as well as my Spiritual Father until I was 100% certain this was a done deal.
Before March 2019, Ayotunde and I had spoken every single day since we had started dating. Nothing or nobody got in our way. There were days I would get off a flight and have meetings back to back, somewhere with a terrible network connection but we always found a way to talk. WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook calls, normal calls, and messages, we just found a way to communicate. Then I forget an event that was important to him even though I asked him to remind me. Looking back now I should have put it on my calendar. He got upset even after I apologized severally, we ended the call both upset as we were only seeing things from our point of view and no one was ready to back down. The biggest mistake we have both made in the course of our relationship since we met was because we both did not call each other for a week.
I got a phone call after a week and he apologized profusely like he had an epiphany and realized he had taken this a step too far. We were back on track now and in April 2019 Ayotunde came to Nigeria for his mum’s birthday party but arrived a week earlier so he could come to Abuja to meet my Dad as he had met my mum and siblings before returning to the UK in 2018. I treated him to the good life of Abuja as I had a list of all the places I wanted him to visit. My dad also showed he had accepted him and went as far as taking him to different places as well. Trust my mum to stuff him with food until he could not stand up and my brothers were pretty chilled with him. We went back to Lagos together for his mother’s birthday and I met other family members I hadn’t met at a family event I attended in December 2017. After the birthday he returned to UK and I to Abuja.
In November 2019, I came for a three-week holiday to the UK to see family members in different parts of the UK and seek the approval of my Spiritual Father. Thankfully what we got from Prophet was more than approval. Then the pandemic happened and everything seemed to be on standstill. That only encouraged Ayotunde the more to make sure he kept his word and he said the moment restrictions were eased, he was coming to get married to me. Now you know why there were no tears and screams when he proposed, we planned it together from the get-go. We did our Introduction (when parents officially meet) via zoom and agreed on a date for the Traditional Wedding because we had already fixed a date for the Court wedding in December.
In November 2020 he surprised me and came a few weeks earlier for my eldest brother’s wedding and stayed back until our Court and Traditional wedding. January 2021, I came to the UK to shop for our White wedding. In June 2021 we did our White Wedding in Abuja and I traveled back to the UK with him and we are living happily ever after.
Happy Birthday to my dearest Husband, the best amongst men. Heaven sent, specially created for me. May your days be filled with increase on every side. You will never know a better yesterday, Nations will come to your rising. We will serve God together till He returns. I love you my King.
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