Living the Ezekiel 47 Life, 22 years later....

I'm pretty sure my husband won't wake up this morning and wish me "Happy Anniversary!", but it is an anniversary of sorts for us today.  Today we celebrate the day we got engaged.  It's been 22 years now that we've officially been "one".  I treasure each day because you never know when it will be your last.  We were reminded of that yesterday as we heard of an older lady passing away in our church.  We had just seen her a few weeks ago before Christmas, then she got sick and yesterday at 6 am, she was gone.  I can picture her and her husband, standing together as they always did.  She was quite the fashionista for a lady in her late 80s.  Her younger daughter shopped for her and always dressed her like she was the Queen!  She had a wardrobe that made me jealous!  And she always wore a beautiful hat that made her stand out amongst all the rest.  She and her husband were always so kind to us, giving us little things for our kids that they thought we would like, or an article from a paper that was about large families.  So thoughtful, but now she's gone.  I'm sure he's hurting, but they were at least able to grow old together and that would certainly be my prayer and hope for me and my husband.

Our romance was fast and furious.  We were only in each other's presence for a few weeks the summer of our first date before I was back to Colombia, South America, where I was teaching at the time.  One of the last nights I saw him in Canada, he gave me his engineering ring as a symbol that he was "in this for the long haul"...I knew what he meant.  He then came to visit me in Colombia where he first mentioned the "M" word - marriage.  Inside I was freaking out, well, outside, too...the poor guy saw that I suddenly was so scared.  Where did those fears come from?  I think it's because of Disneyland, dumb movies, ridiculous expectations of what I thought a "dream" romance would look like...very immature.  He left thinking,"It's not going to work."  Little did I know he'd already purchased a ring. Such faith.  But at least I had a faith.  God and I met and through His word, He actually showed me RM was the one for me in Jeremiah.  My parents had been sending me tapes of my pastor's teaching from home and he had been in the middle of a series from Jeremiah.  I read Jeremiah 17 the night RM left,

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." (vs.7-8)

How is that a verse on which man to marry?  I heard God tell me that RM was like that tree, with deep roots, someone that wasn't easily phased by fear, or anxious.  Perfect for me.  I needed to marry a tree!  Then, all sorts of other thoughts came into my head.  I had had many roommates throughout my years since I'd left home at 18.  Each girl had become a close friend and I had joked multiple times that I just wished I could marry one of them!  When I stopped to consider each girl, I realized they were all female versions of RM...a little quieter, strong, smart....complete compliments to my more outgoing personality.  Now, here was someone that could be not just a roommate, but my partner for life?!  I would have been a fool to miss out on that.

And as if I needed further confirmation, at church, I heard a sermon, in Spanish no less, and through my Spanish/English translation I received another word from God.  In Ezekiel 47, God walked Ezekiel out into the water.  First he goes in ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then, waist-deep....then it was too deep except for swimming, but down the river he explains all the life, the living creatures that swarm, the many fish, "everything will live where the river goes...."  As I heard the Colombian pastor speaking, I heard this voice in my head that said, "Jump in....over your head....there is life down the river if you are willing to take the chance and trust me."  Later, at our wedding, I had my cousin write a song based on Ezekiel 47 that he sang for us.

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, he was the one for me.  It had been confirmed for me three times in three different ways.  I quickly let RM know how I felt.  He breathed a sigh of relief.  He had never questioned our being together.  I was the nut.  Thank the Lord he waited for me to come around.  It was a great faith journey, asking the Lord to confirm for me what I was supposed to do.  My parents played a critical role, too...from the beginning.  I had always been told, "Since you were two, we've been praying for your future spouse."  I know they prayed RM into my life and when they saw me struggling with my pathetic wishy-washiness, Dad intervened and wrote me a game-changing letter that basically said, "You would be a fool to miss out on this guy."  Good call.

That Christmas I came home expecting to get engaged.  One of my friends heard about this and immediately said, "No way.  That is too soon!"  Fear again entered into my heart.  She was right.  It was going too fast.  What was I thinking?  So I wrote him before I came home and said, "Do not ask me to marry you when I get home!"  So much fear! and fear of man!  Crazy.  He was so patient and said, "Don't worry!"  He reassured me he wouldn't do anything that made me uncomfortable. Somehow in the process I had booked a ticket to go visit him and his parents over the holiday at his parent's place in Winnipeg, where they lived at the time.  That was the final clincher.  I saw how he interacted with his mom and dad and knew it was a special relationship.  I wanted in.

I confessed to him all my pathetic insecurities, my pride, my wrong expectations of what a relationship was supposed to look like and how that had blurred my thinking about him.....I went on and on.  At the end of it all, I made it very clear, "I am ready.  Ask me anytime!"  And he did.  Jan. 6, 1995 at a beautiful French restaurant in Toronto.  We joke that he never actually asked.  He told me.  "I want you to be my wife."  "Yes?"  How do you answer that?!  So I just said something like, "Me too!"  Then I headed back to Colombia where I stayed until June....that was a long time to be away from him.  I had one visit home in April to plan a little, but that was it.   All the dresses for myself, my mom and even the bridesmaids were made by "modistas" in Colombia.  They all turned out great! Email had just started up at that point so it was much easier to be in touch with everyone.  Then we were married on Sept. 1, 1995 and have truly lived Ezekiel 47.....the fruit and life down the river has been amazing!  And instead of swarms of fish, we have swarms of children!  And swarms of animals. Love that!