Even though we had talked almost every day on the phone, there were still many unanswered questions that needed to be asked during my first official trip in October. During our time together, we realized that we had a connection with and deep affection for each other. Distance and communication made being apart difficult but our time together was seamless. It was then that we knew we loved each other with a love that would grow over time.
Once I was back home, he asked if I would spend Thanksgiving with him. It would give us more time to discern where this was headed so I agreed.
I have been in SD for almost a week and will have to leave him again tomorrow morning to go back to life in WA. This time its different. We are different. Life is more familiar to me here, more complete. I'm not sure I was made for prairie life but I was created to be this farmer's wife. I know that now. I'm not sure how but I do.
I love this man's goofy sense of humor and the way he pats me on the head. He is so easy going, well liked and highly thought of. He is always up for a wrestling match yet is gentle as one is with an infant. He is tender, thoughtful, loving. I have rearranged his life as he knew it and his response has been - "honey, where did I move my (insert anything)?" He is slow to anger and easy to love. I want to be with him wherever he is.
He has asked me to marry him and I have accepted. And when our day comes, this passage will be part of our ceremony:
From the Book of Ruth 1:16-17
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
I love you, Farmer Joe.
