Flashback Friday

Every flashback is special to me, but this one has a little something extra to it. Because without this one, there would be none of the others. It's back to where it all began...

22 years ago today...22 YEARS!!...Brad and I went on our first date! Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart!

I wish I had a picture of our first date. Or just of our dating days! I was not much of a photog back then. I became a paparazzi girl when our first child was born, so our photo albums look like we met at our wedding and immediately started having babies. There are about 8 years of our life with just scattered pictures here and there, nothing worthy of displaying. It's so special that this day falls when it does...here's the story:

We both went to the same high school and same church, but had not met until we were counselors at Cispus, the 5th grade outdoor education program. The counselor I shared a cabin with was friends with Brad, and at some point she mentioned that Brad had a girlfriend. I remember feeling very disappointed to hear that, and surprised that I cared. So at some point in the week, I had been assigned to supervise a log cutting station. It was one of those looooong articulating saws that someone stands on each end of the saw and they pull back and forth until they cut off a slice of a huge log. I'm sure I was the least qualified person at that camp to supervise such an event, and couldn't imagine that even one kid would be interested in coming to cut a log. It was pouring sheets of rain when it was time to cut logs. Massively down pouring. I went out to the log cutting station and there is a crazy amount of kids lining up to cut that dumb log. All eagerly standing there in their rain jackets,dripping wet and hyper with excitement to cut a log! I stood there for a minute trying to figure out how to even begin, and thinking it wasn't even safe for me to be in charge of such a thing, when Brad came bounding out in his camouflage print raincoat and said, "Can you use some help out here?" So he stepped up and took charge and had those kids dropping rounds of a log like they'd been lumberjacks for their entire 10 years! Brad was my hero from the first words he spoke to me!

And the cool thing about it falling on this day? Our daughter is at Cispus right now as a 5th grader. Her teacher was my supervising teacher when I was a counselor. We've come full circle in this beautiful life we have. They don't do the log cutting anymore, so she won't have that experience. But she knows the story. She also knows we were high school counselors, not 5th graders. I told her not to stand in the rain and look for her hero. Not yet.

Back home from Cispus, we continued to find ourselves at the same event. Coincidence? I think not. After about 3 weeks of crossing paths and getting to know each other a bit in the safety of a group, we finally went on our first date: May 8, 1987. At the end of the date, Brad very nervously said, "I'd really like to see you again." When I said I'd like that too, he said, "Tomorrow?" And the rest, as they say, is history!

Look what we've become, Brad! We've come a long way in 22 years. I'm so glad I've been with you more years than I've been without you. Certainly 22 years ago today, we had no idea that we'd be where we are now. Just two high school kids who had a crush on each other and became best friends. Over the next 3 years, we fell in love slowly, and fell in love deeply. I still have a crush on you. You are still my best friend. I am still deeply in love with you.

So thanks to Brad for summoning up the courage to ask me out 22 years ago. And ask me out the 2nd time.

And for as long as we both shall live...and then forever. I love you.