7.31.2010

22 years ago...

Twenty-two years ago this month (July 1988) I met Steve. I was a 21 year old girl from Atlanta who'd never been to Chicago before...I got off of the plane with two other girls from Atlanta on an adventure we weren't expecting - we were headed to Summer Institute of Evangelism, hosted by Youth for Christ, at Rockford College. We got to Chicago on Saturday night. We went to Hard Rock Cafe and stayed in a very questionable hotel, that in retrospect still makes me cringe.

Sunday we headed off to Rockford. We arrived mid-afternoon. Summer Institute was actually a two-week training, but we were only able to go for one week (we had a trip with our students in Jekyll Island) during the first week. So, when we arrived at Rockford College on Sunday afternoon, the majority of the SI class that summer had already been there for a week, and Sunday was the "day-off". We were directed to where our dorms were, and told that a small group of people had hung around campus for the day and were playing volleyball... so we dropped off our stuff to our rooms, and headed off to the volleyball court.

Now...make note: if you know me at all you know I'm not good at sports. I love sports - but I'm so much not the participant kind of person. I have the best of intentions and most honestly, I wish I could say I was good at some sport. But I'm not. I can't throw a football, or barely a frisbee. I'm not a runner. Tennis is not my game...actually now that I think about it - I was pretty decent at racquetball --- it didn't matter where I hit the ball so much because it could bounce off the walls and still be "in". (OK, tangent...reign it in Michelle...) All that to say - I stunk (and still stink) at volleyball as well.

We walk towards the volleyball court (outdoor) and literally I stop in my tracks. Not out of fear, not because I forgot something. I turned to the girls and said (seriously I said this exact thing)... "That's the most incredible specimen of the entire male species on the face of the earth and I'm going to marry him someday." And that was it. They laughed. I smiled. And then I proceeded to join in a game of volleyball that I horrendously messed up, but all the while this amazing guy encouraged me and tried his best to help me play. By the end my forearms were bruised beyond belief, and I helped in no way whatsoever. But I'd met Steve. And it was a day that changed my life forever. (July 3, 1988)

Here we are, in Salem, Oregon - and later this year we will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary. He's the bestest ever. He's truly the one God created for me to spend my life with... I know it without any doubt whatsoever.

I realized while writing my last post that most of my "new world" of Oregon doesn't know these old old stories of our life... so, you may see more of these in the future...we'll see.

Today we get to go to a wedding. I love weddings. To watch two people commit their lives to each other and celebrate God joining them together as husband and wife...and... Because inevitably at some point in the ceremony I turn and look at Steve and thank God that he's my husband...the love of my life...my lobster.

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