Anniversaries and Milestones

September 24th marked 2 months old for Evanie and 4 years married for Justin and I. Big month.



Justin and I met in New Zealand in October, 2003 and spent three months together at Bibleschool every day but rarely had an actual conversation. I was probably in the lowest spot of my life to date having brilliantly adopted an eating disorder in efforts to lose weight. Why on earth he was ever attracted to me as a depressed shell of a person is nothing short of a miracle. To further complicate it, I didn't figure it out until a ridiculously long time later.


A quick summary of our 1 year friendship includes us moving to different continents, me dating someone else for 2 foolish months, and tons and tons of emails that, over the course of the year went from casual friends to...well, something more. Emails which my mom begged me to forward to her and then she proceeded to forward to my dad and all my sisters without my permission. Through this my parents got to know him and both practically claimed Justin as a son in law from the beginning, nearly 2 years before they ever met him.



When Justin finally moved back to the same continent (not country though) he came to visit and, long story short, 8 months and 24 days later, we got married. On July 28, 2005 Justin surprised me by showing up in Montana late at night and setting up a beautiful candlelit sanctuary in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods...sorta. He'd set up over 30 candles on the rock walls of a lookout with a view of the city below us! It was stunning. Then he got down on his knee and pulled out a beautiful diamond ring that he'd designed and worked with a jeweler to make himself! He took my breath away!


During the 8 dating months we put a LOT of miles/kilometers on our vehicles and saw each other in short, passionate (not THAT kind of passionate) visits which were wonderful and awful at the same time. (Awful because of the goodbyes.) It was quick but not necessarily simple and involved 7,940 border crossings, 1 crooked lawyer, 2 "entry denied" from Canada, 1 lie to an immigration officer(worst mistake ever!), 4 separate visa's, and 1,000s of dollars. I've probably told 3 lies in my life and I chose to tell one of them to an immigration officer. It's a federal offense with a 5 year prison sentence; kinda like shooting a cop! Basically, never do it.


These past four years have been full of change and the best of my life to date! Together we've lived in 2 different provinces, 4 different houses, had multiple jobs, made spectacular friends, traveled to Australia, taken many road trips, eaten double our combined weight in icecream, bought a house, and had a beautiful baby! Being married to Justin is better than I'd ever dared to hope marriage could be. I am profoundly blessed as a wife and mother.