Of memories and expectation...

All I have to say is, today, it's been 6 months. 6 months since I sat under a tree behind Fancher Hall with Dan, and we talked about what it meant to live filled with the Holy Spirit, and what it would look like for our relationship to be led by God every step of the way. 6 months since I gave him that first hug and went away with my head spinning at the thought that, maybe, after 21 years of waiting, I could finally let myself fall in love. And I did. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we have grown much, learned much, changed much, come to a deeper and wider understanding of what it means to love and be loved. It has also been a time of great agony and many tears, the most gaping, gushing, throbbing pains I have ever felt, because the vast majority of it has been spent many, many miles apart. But it is also accompanied by the greatest joys I have ever known, the deepest moments of contentment and peace and rest, and our fair share of smiles and laughter. And I wouldn't trade a single moment of it.

This is all thanks to the God who first loved us, who has taken the pain of the world into Himself where it is mixed with joy and forged into the strongest kind of love. Then He fills us with His love that is wide and long and high and deep beyond understanding, and which by a powerful miracle of grace enables us to love. What a wonderful, mind-boggling mystery this is! I will burst forth in songs of gratitude for it all the days of my life.

And it is also 2 months from today that I get to pick Dan up from the airport and "apart" no longer has to be a word in our vocabulary. Oh, what a day that will be!!! :-)