10 Years Ago

10 years ago I had just joined staff full time with Campus Crusade for Christ.  After finishing up my new staff training in Florida I visited Joe (my boyfriend at the time) in Maine.  I had been in Maine for about a week or two visiting Joe and fundraising when Joe planned a fun day for us together in Camden (this sweet little coastal village I had driven through by myself earlier in the week and said I wanted to visit).  Our day started out hiking with lunch and hiking Mt. Battie.  Later in the afternoon we visited a beautiful little white steeple church that I just feel in love with.  And then Joe planned something really special- a sunset sailboat cruise out in the ocean (complete with lobster dinner aboard)!  That weekend was the Windjammer festival in Camden so after sailing we got ice cream and walked around the harbor checking out the boats.  At the end of day Joe took me out onto the Rockland Breakwater to watch the fireworks from the windjammer festival.  And then, with fireworks literally going off over the ocean around us, Joe got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  You know, I'm not even sure I actually said yes- I'm pretty sure I said something like, "Of course I will!"  That was 10 years ago this month.

And last weekend we were at the sweet little white steeple church that I fell in love with the day we got engaged and where we were married 4 months later.  Last weekend we were there to speak and share about our ministry.  After church (and a delicious brunch that a couple from the church treated us to at the Samoset Inn) we took the kids out onto the Rockland Breakwater. It was almost exactly 10 years from when Joe proposed. And after we walked a little ways out (it's quite long- almost a mile I think) Joe suddenly stopped, pointed to a rock and said, "This is it, this is where I proposed."  I didn't quite understand how he knew the exact spot until he said that the night he proposed he purposely stopped at the first spot with a large rock sticking up over the side...so he would know the exact spot for the future!  Melt my heart.

This is just one of the many reasons I married him.  I was pretty sure that night when I said, "Yes" or "Of course I will" or whatever I said that I was making a good decision. And 10 years and 3 children later I am certain beyond a doubt that it wasn't just a good decision, but one of the best decisions of my life.