it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship

One year ago today, Facebook played a pivotal role in changing my life forever.

Hi James!! How the heck are you?

These were the first words I wrote on the wall of his Facebook page after accepting his friend request on November 12, 2008. I had no idea then what I was in for. We hadn't kept in touch since our days at Biola and for all I knew, the pictures on his profile page were of his own children.

I remember a knot in me relaxing when I learned from his reply that the children in those photos were all nieces and nephews.

After several more replies back and forth, then came a phone call (that one, four and a half hours) and a second phone call (that one, five and a half hours) and a third brief one in which I had to tell him exactly how much I was feeling, and how unexpectedly I was feeling it. Nearly a year before that, I had embraced my singleness enthusiastically. Because of this and the vow of celibacy I knew he had made (and which only God could undo), it was painful for me to tell him that my heart was not available to anyone else.

I knew I was telling him: if I don't marry you, I don't marry. Period.

That phone call ended tenuously. I had just blurted the entire contents of my heart out, and I didn't have any idea of it being reciprocated.

But then it was.

He loved me and he married me, and so we grow in love, still.



{And, PS ... he was right again.}

photo by kirsten.michelle
Canon 40D