One year ago today.

On May 11th, 2008, I met my future husband. I didn't know it at the time, of course, but that day marked the beginning of the rest of my life. That quirky stranger I met in my uncle's hospital room became, within a matter of weeks, someone I cared for deeply and couldn't imagine not having in my life.

Everything happens for a reason. That weekend in May, my uncle was admitted to the hospital less than a year following a major kidney transplant surgery, and that was scary. But if it hadn't been for that dangerous situation where his brand-new kidney seemed to be failing, I may never have met Joe. So thanks, Uncle Phil, for having those kidney complications. (And thanks for making it through that and being healthy again! This story might've been a bummer to tell if you hadn't made it... *wink*)

Everything happens for a reason. About five years ago, my cousin Sarah, Phil's daughter, married a guy named Jeff. Jeff and Joe are long-time friends, and Joe was in their wedding party. If Sarah hadn't married Jeff, I might not have met Joe.

Everything happens for a reason. About thirty-two years ago, Ben and Pauli found out they were pregnant. They decided to keep the baby, in spite of the many difficulties surrounding them and the readily available (and popular) "alternative" solution. If they hadn't kept their precious baby, there would never have been a Joe for me to meet.

As I'm thinking back on all the variables in my life over the past 24 years, and in Joe's over the past 31, I'm completely in awe at God's timing and His plan. It's absolutely amazing, the number of ways I can see my choices in life relating DIRECTLY to getting me to that hospital room on May 11, 2008. If I hadn't gone back to Azusa to start my credential program after I graduated, I probably wouldn't have met him. If I hadn't gotten the job at the church in order to make money while I was in the credential program, I probably wouldn't have stayed in Azusa after I quit the credential program, and then I wouldn't have met him. If I hadn't offered to go with my mom to visit my grandma and uncle in the hospital, I wouldn't have met him (but my mom probably still would have). If my mom and I had decided not to go to Sarah's daughter's baby dedication that morning, and instead went straight to the hospital to visit our family, I might not have met him. Or if Sarah had never asked Joe to be Felicity's godfather, he might not have gone to the dedication, and instead would've visited Phil earlier, and then I might not have met him.

...Are you getting the picture here?

So many variables. So many ways we could've missed each other completely. But we didn't. On May 11, 2008, we met. We talked for no more than ten minutes. And somehow we both made enough of an impression on each other that we kept talking.

Thank you Lord for blessing me with Joe.

P.S. This is totally not where I was going with this post originally. I wanted to write about our one-year (minus two days) picnic on Saturday! I guess it can wait for the next post. Or maybe Joe will want to write about it. :-)