One year ago today...

One year ago today, I was visiting Stephen in California. He came in my room to wake me up and flung open the door exclaiming, "Wow, that window looks extra sparkly today."

Always bad at keeping secrets from me, I knew then that March 23, 2010 would be the day that would change my life.

I won't rewrite the whole story because you can be read the whole long version here, but at sunset on the beach, Stephen got down on one knee and asked me to spend forever with him. I still tease him to this day that he technically never asked me to "marry" him, just to spend forever with him. ha!

Now just 24 days until our wedding, I still ask him if he still wants to spend forever with me. Some days I feel so unworthy. Why does he want to spend forever with me? Why of all people in this world has he chosen me? Why does he want to love me? I once heard years ago that marriage is a great way to hold a mirror in front of your face and see all your worst character traits. But that's what I love about Stephen. He inspires me to want to be a better person. When I'm thinking negative about something, he's thinking positive. When I want to complain, he wants to rejoice. When my glass is half empty, his is half full. When I'm impatient, he's patient. When I'm feeling distance from God, he wants to help pull me back to His heart. When I'm crying, he wants to make me laugh. He teaches me to see the best in people. He teaches me to dwell on all we are blessed with. He puts up with my perfectionist ways and still loves me anyway. He simply loves asking nothing in return, just as Jesus did.

This past year has been a growing experience not only for us together, but for me individually and spiritually as Stephen teaches me through his love how God loves me that much more.

Last night he signed me up for Instagram (username: scarlettlillian) and I took this picture of two frames I have on the wall. They pretty much symbolize our love and the silly moments that mean the most.




Also, we've decided to start documenting by video some of our in between moments of life and with that we've started a You Tube channel called the "Stephen & Scarlett Show". As much as I love photos, I was saying how I wish I could go beyond photos and watch video footage of my parent's life as newlyweds and things and people that made up their everyday world. So we thought it would be fun to create this You Tube channel for our kids to watch one day. If you care to watch too, you can subscribe here:

http://www.youtube.com/scarlettandstephen

Here's a video of us fishing this past weekend when our friend Jim Davis-Hicks was in town and taught us how to fish. More are on the You Tube channel.