9 years ago yesterday

On February 20, 1999, Travis Johnson knocked on my door. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sky was blue, the temperature was perfect. The bummer was, being a junior at Lee University, I had all day homework. Travis asked me if I wanted to go to a state park that day. While it sounded nice, I insisted that I had too much homework and we would just have to stay in. Somehow (he is quite charming, you know) he convinced me to bring my homework to the park. So I got ready and off we went to Cloudland Canyon State Park.

Being the good little student that I was, I did homework on the hour drive up there. When we got there we decided to hike to the bottom of this waterfall. It was gorgeous. Travis had packed blanket and he spread it out so we could sit down. The sound of the waterfall was so pretty. Then he pulled my journal out of the backpack. It was a beautiful leather journal that he had gotten me the previous Christmas. He had written something in it and asked me to read it. I was still clueless at this point. But as I read, it started coming together and then I couldn't wait to get to the end. The last line was, "Take what little I have and stay with me. Forever. With Christ in the center, we are unbreakable."

When I was done reading I looked over and Travis had a ring box open. I was floored. I didn't even ring shop with him! We had never even talked about what kind of ring I liked, but he hit the nail on the head! I figured since we didn't get engaged at Valentine's Day (the weekend before) it was gonna be a while! The first thing I said was, "did you ask my dad?!" What kind of response was that!?!? I don't know. But of course I was thrilled and said yes. He did talk to my dad, by the way.

We hiked back up the mountain, me clenching my fist tight so as to not lose the over-sized ring. I didn't do a lick of homework the rest of that weekend. But it didn't matter. I was engaged and on cloud nine. We called our parents, told friends, and I felt like the whole world must be looking at my left hand.

So I have had my ring for 9 years now. That is crazy to me. It has been through a wedding, a honeymoon, lived in 5 cities, seen the birth of 3 children, and been stuck on swollen fingers for months. My nails are chipped today, there are toys all around me, my babies are in bed right now. But I am remembering the joy of nine years ago. Time is flying by and I am more in love now than I was on that day.