16 years ago today. . . .

I had just completed, and passed, my first year of PT school.  It had been a tough year, living 600 miles away from everything I'd known my whole life.  I literally did not know anybody when I moved there in August of 1992.  PT school is a tough program, but I was loving it! School was supposed to be out in early May, as most college programs are.  However, we had a prof who had a problem with procrastination and didn't get our research class completed.  So we had to stay an extra 3 weeks to complete his class.  I was SO disappointed when we found out we had to stay, but there was nothing I could do about it.  I sublet my apartment for the Summer and was packed and ready to go the morning after the last class let out!  I set out in my red Dodge Shadow for the 600 mile trip.  Then the trouble started.  I kept losing power on the highway.  I stopped at a BACK country station and they told me I needed a new part, not something that is normally carried, and it was Saturday.  They said that a Dodge dealer was my best bet for finding the part.  It was a few more hours to the next Dodge dealer in Wheeling, WV, and this was before cell phones!  Ha!  I decided to risk it and keep going.  I used a pay phone to call ahead to the Dodge dealer to see if they had the part, and they did!  I made it there about 20 minutes before they closed for the weekend. The rest of the trip was a breeze after that!

Now, part of the reason I was so anxious to get home was that Tim and I had been discussing marriage and even had a couple of tentative dates picked out.  This wasn't easy as we were having to work around his graduation in May of 1994 (and starting to work) and my completion of the 2nd year of PT school, AND the clinical rotations that I was supposed to start in June of '94.  I was fairly certain that he would be proposing not long after I got home for the Summer. So I was anxious to get that diamond and make it official!  :)  

On Friday, June 4, 1993, less than a week after getting home, we had a 

wedding to attend.  For some reason that I couldn't understand, Tim scheduled a meeting with our Pastor to discuss Summer ministry plans.  We had to go straight from that meeting to the wedding, so we were already dressed up.  When I arrived at the church there was no Pastor, just an empty sanctuary with an open Bible on the pew.  There was a note to sit down and read Proverbs 31.  (This is the passage about a godly wife).  I did as instructed and before long some music started.  Tim came out on the stage, singing & playing guitar.   When the song was over, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.  I giggled and then said, YES!  We danced to another song and then went to dinner.  We met up with my parents at the wedding reception - they obviously knew what was happening. That Summer was filled with wedding plans.   It was so much fun!

WOW - look at that hair -- the amount & size of mine and the lack of gray in his!  :)  Otherwise, we haven't changed a bit!  ha ha!   16 years later, I'd say, YES! once again . . .