A simple "yes"...

I posted on Facebook that today marks 15 years since Chip asked me to marry him and I said yes. Fifteen years ago I had NO IDEA what the future held for us, and I'm quite certain I wouldn't have believed it even if you had spelled it all out for me.

What I do know 15 years later is that I still feel very blessed to have met Chip, fallen "in like" with him, and then I started to see his potential, my potential and then "our potential" when I let myself dream a little bit at a time. I'm very humbled that God brought us together and pretty much blew away any picture I had in my mind of how our lives would turn out together. I'm still amazed that Chip was "smitten" by me. I wasn't really the "smittening-type" of girl back in those days. I was {and sadly still am far too often!} a selfish girl that judges quickly and feels entitled to get her way. I can be picky about little things- and even nit-picky about littler things. Fifteen years ago I never imagined that our lives would blossom beyond just an "us" to include several more little people, who very quickly and thoroughly, taught and continue to teach me that there's more to life than just me.

As I pause and think back to that moment in time {at Rice Park, Saint Paul, Minnesota} when Chip asked me to be his wife and one little word- three little letters- changed the course of my; changed the course of OUR lives, well, it's nothing short of amazing to me. I often joke, at times when life gets stressful and Chip and I are at odds with how to proceed through whatever it is life is handing us at that moment, I say to Chip, "Remember...you asked ME to marry YOU", and we laugh and it helps bring us back to 'reality'. Our crazy, wonderful, challenging, sometimes-ready-to-throw-in-the-towel, up and down again, all-around amazing reality that is our life.

I'm thankful that he asked me.

I'm so glad that my selfish, unprepared self said yes.

I couldn't imagine anyone else next to me through these past 15 years.

It's been wild. It's been hard.

It's been more than I imagined, and for all of it, I'm grateful.

I never knew a little yes could change so much.

I love you, Chip and I would say yes all over again.

This time, I'd do it in a heartbeat.