One Year Ago . . .

This morning, Tuesday, Haidee and I were talking about Jonathon (her brother) and Cassie's wedding last year.  It was quite a whirlwind week for us!  Haidee flew back to the USA on a Monday, I proposed to her the next day, she helped her family prep for the wedding, and before you knew it we were saying good-bye (again!) and she was flying back to Japan.

It's hard to imagine that was one year ago.  I remember the day I proposed to Haidee very clearly. . .

[To see the entire story on our wedding website (along with other pictures and things), click here:  www.weddingwire.com/ericandhaidee]

Haidee was returning to the United States in June for the world’s shortest international visit:  7 days to celebrate her brother’s wedding.  Eric knew this was his moment.  He asked Haidee’s family for one day, just one short day, to spend alone with their beloved daughter.  Knowing that Eric was planning on proposing sometime in the near future, her family agreed:  Eric got to claim Haidee for all of Tuesday!  Cleverly, Eric had ordered flowers on Monday and arranged with a friend to have them picked up and placed in the chapel at Concordia the following afternoon.  He then drove to the airport to pick up Haidee Monday evening and bring her home to Faribault.  Upon seeing her, Eric was stunned by how beautiful Haidee looked after traveling for 24 hours by train, plane, and automobile!   

The next day, sleep-deprived and jet-lagged (but still looking more stunningly beautiful than ever) Haidee and Eric spent their precious *one day* alone together in the Twin Cities.  They visited Minnehaha Falls, a very romantic park in the Twin Cities!  They had lunch at Chica Boca (okay, not the most romantic location – but you can’t get good Mexican food in Japan).  They drove across town . . . on the hottest day of the summer:  103 degrees, high humidity (it was just 2 degrees shy of setting a record) . . . in Eric’s ’99 Saturn . . . with NO air-conditioning! (NOT the most romantic situation, but the car gets great gas mileage!)

After lunch, Eric asked Haidee, “Would you like to play piano together in the chapel for old time’s sake?”  Haidee answered: “Yeah, that would be nice.”  (in her sleep-deprived, jet-lagged state she was agreeable to just about anything. . . good news for what Eric was planning on asking her).  They arrived at the chapel.  Eric’s friend greeted the two of them at the door to the chapel with a wide grin on her face.  “Sure thing,” she said.  “You’re more than welcome to play piano in the chapel!” 

Haidee (still jet-lagged and beautiful) entered the chapel ahead of Eric and saw the roses, rose pedals, candles, and card arranged nicely on a table in the corner of the sanctuary.  “That’s nice,” she said out loud.  “I wonder who those are for?”  Eric closed the glass doors behind them.  Haidee noticed her picture on the card and got suddenly very quiet, and slightly more awake.  She approached the table.  She opened the card.  Eric knelt down beside her and took a small black box out of his pocket.  He asked her the question.  She said YES!!!!

I find myself, one year later, still stunned by how incredibly beautiful Haidee is to me, how I love her even more today than I did one year ago when I proposed to her, and how blessed I am to be married to her.

It's been a year of blessings.  I know there will be many more wonderful years to come!  I love you, Haidee.