Forty Three Years
Yes!
On January 23, 2005, at 9:25am, Stan brought me to a classroom around the corner and introduced me to my new friends at Westwood Baptist Church. It was my very first day in this new church. The class was called IMPACT, and in that class were Jerry (teacher), Terry, Becky, Amy, and Lori. July 6, 2008, at 9:25am, 1260 days later, minutes before the crowds would show up for the Sunday School classes, I crept in, nursing a very nervous stomach and a night of sleeplessness, and in the dark classroom, lit only by the faint light peeping through the tiny window on the door, I wrote a question on the dry erase board, in blue marker. Amy and I had shared this classroom for three years, and there was still a silly note left on the board from ten months earlier, written in blue dry-erase which said, "Please see if you can find the blue marker missing from this classroom". But I wrote something else above it, a question I was afraid to mouth for fear of stumbling on the words. I stuck my head out the door and saw Amy glide in, and I asked her to come back to the classroom. In a serious, tired manner, she said she needed to speak to her mother on something important. I told her this would only take a minute and was very important. We entered the classroom, I turned on the lights, got down on one knee, held out a one-carat sapphire-diamond ring, looked up at her in my best puppy-dog eyes I could muster, and said,"Amy, will you marry me?" Through the startled looks and chaos, as I attempted to fall on my face in humility, she snatched
that little gem out of my hand, and to the best of my recollection, she said,"Yes!" From the way she lit up, you would've thought she'd won a
lifetime supply of chocolate. The rest of the year was a blur.
Due to constraints on finances and time, I hung around Evansville on the 43rd anniversary of me following the light, popping my
ugly head out of the womb and screaming,"Here's Johnny!" My beautiful red Honda Accord, Alexandria, had just turned
ten. So I dug out the same 21 year-old teal shirt I wore in 1990 when posing with my red Honda Civic, Simon,
the same shirt I wore in 1998 (same pants too) shortly after I brought him home from the Honda factory in
Ohio, and basked. Amy and I had just returned from the County Clerk's office clutching a marriage
license. The marriage license plates would take another two weeks.
I was thankful for many things in 2008--my health, friends, family, my (mediocre but comfortable) wealth, my health, my adorable puppy, for the one who would make growing old seem not so bad, but most of all, for that one word she
gave me on July 6--"Yes!"
Click on thumbnail for full-size photo
Jan 14
Happy Dog
Feb 23
Happy Couple
Feb 25
Hudson River Cruise
Mar 23
Super Dog!
Apr 4
Lean!
Apr 26
Night at Symphony
May 25
Indianapolis 500
Jun 7
Canoe Trip
Jun 29
Frog
Jun 28
St. Louis Zoo
Jul 6
Amy Says Yes!
Jul 17
Gizmo Turns 6
Jul 18
Planning Wedding
Jul 26
Butterfly
Aug 3
Lap Dance
Aug 17
Honeymoon?
Aug 24
Swingers
Aug 30
Another Canoe Trip
Sept 6
Steve's Wedding
Nov 23
Bathing
Nov 27
True Love
Dec 12
Last Photo of 2008
