Thankful Thursday...Happily Ever After

Today Craig and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, or rather, as Liv puts it, our "marriage birthday." My marriage is the subject of just one of the things in life I am very thankful for. Currently, our family is on the tail end of a very BIG transition. All good, but stressful on all of us. We are now looking forward to our travels to bring Evan home...SOON we pray! (Just waiting on the TA!)

Craig and I met under unusual circumstances. He was a year post-op from a liver transplant for a rare genetic disorder, and I was a widow. He was 26 and I, 22.

A day or two after Anthony died, I was driving home from picking out the casket, vault flowers, (and all that fun stuff) and was thinking about what a great and godly husband the Lord had given me. He had been called to be a pastor, so we were preparing to sell our little red house and move to seminary school. Couldn't ask for better... So I told the Lord on the way home, that if He had someone picked out for me, GREAT, but he'd have to drop him in my lap, because I wasn't going to go looking for him. I believed I would be married again, and knew that the Lord knew exactly who he was. Why should I get involved and screw it all up?

A rabbit trail I should probably save for a Memory Box Monday or Miracle Monday post...but here goes:

Besides, two weeks before Anthony died, we had talked about the 'what ifs' in life. I was doing a unit on organ donation and transplantation in school, so the conversation was so very natural to have. We decided we both wanted trees over our graves, we were both adamant organ donors, and who we should marry. (Really, I should save this little story for another post, but I gotta keep going now. :0)) I gave him 3 people who he should marry. Nice girls. One of them is now my sister in law. He chuckled and said no way to each one. I asked him who he thought I should marry and his reply was simply, "God's Will for your life." UGH. What a wonderful, spiritual answer that I didn't want to hear. Oh, how prophetic it was.

Sure enough, Craig was in the same town, praying for a wife. Little did I know we had already seen each other. Anthony and Craig played basketball for "opposing" churches. I was doing my nursing school homework at the game they played against each other. I remember briefly looking up, and spotting some guy, #14 on the opposing team run full speed down the court. Didn't see his face, but thought, "wow, he's a fast one." hee hee. Come to find out, he spotted me at that game as well, and saw my wedding ring. According to him I was cute, but looked too young to be married, and he thought, "oh, well." Only God can do that! He never remembered Anthony.

We actually met through mutual friends. Anthony's cousin, Shelly and I were very close. She and her husband met Craig a few months preceeding Anthony's death. I never remember her mentioning his name or anything. One Sunday after church, I went home to change, and headed over to their house, as I always did on Sundays. (Shelly is a great cook, and Sundays were lonely, and their kids were great)

This Sunday was different. As I rounded the corner in my muddy green truck, there was a distinctly CLEAN white newer Pontiac parked in MY SPOT. Oh, the gall of some people! So I park, get out and walk across the street and up on the sidewalk. As I approached Ethan (Shelly's youngest son at the time) and this guy, playing ball..my tummy rumbled...something was up. Then, I took a good look at him, OH. MY. WORD. It was HIM. At that point a furry of butterflies exploded in my stomach, and I ran for the front door! You know that feeling you get when you get pulled over? Yeah, that's the feeling, x200. I was also immediately attracted to him, for which I did feel a twinge of guilt over...I even looked back to see if I could get a glimpse of his heiney. Oh, shame!

Shelly met me at the door as I was scratching fervently to get in. She ushered me back out where she introduced me to Craig. We met, and that sealed the deal. Once eye contact was made, and I shook his hand, I knew. It was HIM. Shelly knew too, and Craig, well, being the engineer that he is...he suspected.

During lunch, he mentioned that he was celebrating the first anniversary of his liver transplant. Praise the Lord! He knew my husband was a donor, and wondered if maybe I would help him write a letter to his donor family. He said he started a letter many times, but couldn't find the right words to say. After all, how do you thank someone for such gift, amongst the grief they bear? Of course I said yes.

I saw him two more times after that. On the second time, we ended up having the "talk." He had come over to my house for a 4th of July party. He was the last to leave, and as we sat on the front porch, the air was thick. Finally, FINALLY I looked at him and said, "you know, don't you?"

Not being a man of many words, he said, "yep."

So, I took the plunge, and said, "What's your last name?" After all, I kinda needed to know what it was since it would be mine. (Secretly, I wanted to be sure it wasn't something crazy like, "Starkenblat" or "Flatuanceia" as if it mattered at that point.)

And we've been living Happily Ever After.....