Jesse and I met shortly after his mission. Immediately, we both liked each other, but didn’t know we liked each other. I always had a boyfriend, so he never pursued anything further. Then I served a mission. When I returned home he told me he had liked me for 3 years. I told him, “no way, I’ve liked you for 3 years.” And the rest was history.
Well, sort of. You see, we spent 5 of the 6 months of our engagement far apart from each other. I was at BYU. He went to China on Study Abroad. I think that the most important decision ever made in this life is who you marry. When making this big decision, it is natural for doubts and concerns to crop up. But when your fiance is literally on the other side of the world (before email and cell phones), you can’t confront those fears and doubts.
So he returned home from China in July of 1994. It was awkward. We had to get to know each other again. The wedding was 4 weeks away. We drove from Seattle to Provo for a weekend for my Mission Presidents homecoming. We thought it would be great to have lots of travel time to talk.
While in Provo, we were just full of confusion. We had kept praying to “know” if we should get married or not. Just as we were about to return back to Seattle we decided to break up. For the next 6 hours we both cried almost the whole time. We had kept praying to “know” if we should get married or not.
When making THE MOST IMPORTANT decision of our lives, we wanted an angel to come down and say, “get married.” But that is not how the Lord works. If we had a perfect knowledge that everything would be perfect by the voice of an angel, that would not be faith. So we had to try to listen to the quiet and subtle whisperings of the Spirit to make this decision. But we could not get rid of the pits in the stomach, caused by doubt and fear.
We decided to get lunch and stop in Boise. We went to the Boise Temple. We decided to give it ONE LAST SHOT. We sat on the grounds and uttered the most humble, heartfelt prayer of our lives. This was it. We were not going to ask anymore. If we were not suppose to get married, we would say our final goodbyes and move on. As I offered the prayer, we felt the sweetest, warmest, most peaceful feeling we had ever felt. The pits in our stomachs were completely gone. We finally got in through our thick heads that YES, we were suppose to get married.
I made him right then and right there RE-propose to me. So in the parking lot of the Boise Temple, he asked me to marry him. That was exactly one month before our wedding date. From that day forward, we have NEVER looked back.
Despite a rocky engagement, our marriage has been wonderful. The Boise Temple from that moment on became a special place for us.
How were we to know that on the EXACT 10th Anniversary of our marriage, we would sign the papers to buy a home in and move to Boise.
On our honeymoon, we went to Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Fast forward 15 years. For our 15 year anniversary we decided to return to our Honeymoon site and go to Cannon Beach. It was wonderful and so fun to reflect on what life has brought us this past 15 years.
If we could turn back the time to that day in Boise 15 years ago in July and have been able to see this:
on Boise Temple grounds
Would it have made our decision to get married easier? Perhaps. But that would not have been faith.
So here’s to the leap of faith that I took 15 years ago in August. It has been my best decision so far!
18 comments:
Heck, after seeing that sweet chubby face of your baby boy, I would have signed on for marriage.
Congrats on never looking back!!
WoW M! That WAS a rather turbulent engagement. I am so glad it has been so wonderful for you both. . it is just a testament to you as people! :)
I love, love this. Thanks for sharing.
I just love you and Jesse - happy Versary! ;0)
Happy anniversary!!!!
Thank you for sharing your story. I loved how you described the sweet feeling of peace when you knew that it was right. It is such a leap of faith.
Love that story!
Clearly you were meant to be together! I love the old pictures...such a pain to scan in but so worth it!
Happy Anniversary!
Melissa was an Angel to marry me and a Goddess for putting up with me still.
I lveo you Melissa - My Love!
ohhhhhhhhhhh myyy gosh! i lOVE the old pics! you guys are the coolest couple ever. seriously. i love you guys.
Melissa, this is crazy. I am so excited to find you. Your family is beautiful. Meagan is georgeous, I also remember the Pittsburgh days (when my Sarah and your Meagan clogged the church toilet with M&M's). Fun stuff. Sounds like you are busy like me, nothing better than lots of crazy kids. Say hi to Jesse! Love, Martha
thanks for posting this Melissa..with Becky getting married in a few days and so many similiar things having occurred for both Jeff and her...it's amazing how it works isn't it.
It's amazing how love works out as long as you work at it You guys are great!
I am so proud of you, it took 15 years- but you did it, you mastered the art of self portrait taking! ;)
I loved this post! How fantastic is it that you LIVE by the temple where you got that incredible answer! You can think about it every time you drive by! What a blessing!
I LOVE that you wrote about this. I had no idea about your engagement. I was recently off my mission and was still so weird. I remember your wedding though. What a beautiful story you both have. :)
Why is it that I either forgot or never knew that story? What a crazy thing to happen but in the end it's what cemented your decision and will be something you can always look back on. And look how good things turned out!! :)
Happy Anniversary of the Best Decision Ever! Here's to many more Augusts in the years to come. (I LOVE that story, it's one that always needs to be shared over Cold Stone Ice Cream, don't you think?)
So sweet! I love hearing about what you guys went through to decide to get married. Very beautiful. It would be easy if you could see the end from the beginning, but you're right... that wouldn't involve faith.
Thank you!
P.S. We went to Cannon Beach on our Honeymoon as well! One of our stops anyway.
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