seven years later

we were just kids.

at almost-eighteen and barely-eighteen, we were seniors at different {rivaling} high schools, best friends awaiting graduation, mere months away. the end of lockers, and it seemed a beginning for everything else.

he was the kind of friend I stayed up talking to until the wee hours of the morning. on msn. it was 2006 after all.

it was a snowy March weekend. a few cool people from our church were getting together with our sunday school teacher at her family's cottage for the weekend, and we were both going to be there. a weekend away from home, with minimal electricity + lots of blankets to share. a little house on the river with a giant bonfire pit in the back yard. a great big wooden cross erected where it could be seen from across the river on the main road.

we found ourselves almost alone one night, the others in the room having drifted off to sleep, and he made a move. just a kiss; nothing more, nothing less.

and it began.
the love affair that consumed our lives.
it kept us from Jesus for a season, but eventually brought Him nearer to us than we ever would have experienced had we remained in His hand from the beginning. His plan is far better. {amen + amen}

four years later we married.
three years more and we've listened to the call to be fruitful and multiply.

she's never allowed to go on weekend youth retreats to romantic little cottages.