It's a Date!

At the end of July, Tim and Kellie announced their engagement.  September 1, 2012.  Our family were SO thrilled for them.  Two absolutely amazing people found each other!  There is no way you can look at those two and not KNOW that Heavenly Father is aware of us, and has a hand in helping us along our way home to Him, and that includes helping us find our Eternal Companions.

Last time I visited Mom and Dad was this past February, over Valentine's Day.  Tim picked me up from the airport with a Glaus cake for mom in the back seat, and on the drive down to Cath's house, he updated me on his job and his church calling and on his dating life.  He told me about several girls he had taken out, and mentioned a thing or two about them, but I could tell that although they were surely great people, Tim wasn't seriously interested in any of them.  He worried aloud on the car ride that he had become too picky, or that he had possibly passed opportunities for a serious relationship by.

 Although this may be true for some people, I knew deep down that it wasn't the case for Tim.  Tim is something special, and everyone who meets him can sense it.  He's kind and good.  He's funny and smart.  He's caring and insightful.  He's selfless and hard-working.  He's experienced physical trials in his life that I feel have helped him to become a more Christ-like person, and able to empathize more than most,  with those who suffer.  His trials truly shaped the type of person he would become.  On September 8th, a little shy of two years ago, he wrote this on his blog,

My surgery is scheduled for September 9th.  This is also the date of the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashana, which marks the start of the Jewish new year.  The holiday commemorates the creation of man.

In many ways my surgery will mark the beginning of a new year - a new and better way of living, perhaps.  And though I clearly am not one of God's ideal physical creations, I commemorate and appreciate the fact that He chose to create me the way I am.

Happy Rosh Hashana. 

Although Tim may not be one of "God's ideal physical creations", He certainly spared no expense when shaping Tim's heart, and his spirit, his personality and his compassion.  No, I don't think Tim was being picky.  I just think that that someone would have to be pretty special to feel at home with Tim.  

And so, as Tim was talking in the car, he mentioned his Patriarchal Blessing mentioned three qualities that his spouse should have.  I can't remember them now, but I remember praying as he told me about them that he would find the woman who personified them, or that she would find him. 

I was just realizing that Tim wrote that post on September 8, 2010.  That next year I needed his strength and encouragement when I took my turn in a hospital bed.  Tim accompanied Mom so she could be there  with me when I was so sick.  When I looked at Tim there in my ICU room, standing there so strong and handsome, and remembered all the times he had been the one sick in the hospital bed, I KNEW I could make it through.  Then after I got home, he came to help with the kids when Josh had to leave on a business trip.  Talk about selfless!  So, thank you Tim, if for nothing else waiting around one extra year to be of service to me.  

A few weeks after that February airport pick-up and conversation, Kellie called Tim and asked him out on a date!  After a few months of dating, they got engaged!  I love this little cartoon that Tim made telling their story:

And that is a long, round-about way of telling you why this picture is so important: