"You had me at... 5 hours of conversation!"

You know in the movie "Jerry Maguire", when Renee Zellweger tells Tom Cruise "You had me at hello"? Jim and I were watching that movie the other night, and he leaned over to me at that exact moment and whispered, "You had me at... 5 hours of conversation!".

It's hard for me to believe that exactly two years ago I was getting ready to marry this man. The time has passed by incredibly fast. Jim and I met May 2005, and after repeated encounters, Jim finally invited me out to lunch. After church with his parents. On his mother's 50th birthday. Awkward situation? Yes, but a) I knew his parents and b) I was a poor starving college student who had no shame when it came to free food. After lunch, Jim and I ended up spending five hours talking about everything - who we were, our likes and dislikes, our pasts, and what God was doing in our lives. The latter amazed me - what God was doing in both our lives lined up like two puzzle pieces fitting perfectly together. Jim told me later that he knew that day God had brought me into his life to become his wife. I, being skeptical, took a little longer to grasp the concept.

One year and five days after that fateful day, Jim proposed on bended knee next to the dead roses by the bathroom at edge of the grounds at Maryhill Museum. He swears it wasn't so, but that is exactly how it happened! And six months and seven days after that, we were married.

Two years later, I am more in love with my husband than the day I married him - and better yet, I am more convinced he is the man God had intended just for me.

And Jim, to quote a line from my favorite movie: "To me, you are perfect".

(December 17, 2006)