The beginnings
I'm blessed to be married to my best friend in the world. Here's how it happened:

Jesse and I met when my family and I started attending the church his dad pastors, in the spring of 1992. He's three-and-a-half-years older than I am, and when you're 10, that's a big difference, so although I was friends with his sister, Naomi, I didn't really know him.

It was during our years in youth group together that Jesse and I really got to know each other. Our youth group was very close-knit, and Jesse was just one of a number of close friends from church who I had during my high school years. I always appreciated the conversations that Jesse and I would have--he challenged me, made me think.

During my final year of high school, I applied at a few colleges, but my top choice was Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. I flew to Illinois and visited it, and it was perfect-- everything I wanted in a school. However, even on that trip, I had this feeling deep inside that this wasn't where I would end up. I brushed it aside, and applied at Wheaton, Pacific Lutheran University and Western Washington University.

Although I was accepted at Wheaton, the finances just weren't there, so I chose PLU instead.

In retrospect, Jesse says this is when he had the first inkling that I was particularly special to him ... because when he found out I wasn't going to Wheaton, he was happy and relieved!

I graduated from high school in 2000, and that summer, Jesse, our friend Ben, and I decided we were going to be "beach bums." Every day that it wasn't raining and we weren't working, the three of us went to American Lake and hung out. We would swim out to the dock, carrying a solar-powered radio, and sit and chat and joke for a couple of hours. It was a great summer.

The turning point
That fall, I started college at PLU. Right before I started, my best friend, Marion, left for school in California, and just after the semester began, Ben left for Air Force basic training. I guess Jesse and I were just in the habit of hanging out at this point, because we continued seeing each other almost every day. He would come pick me up from my dorm after he got off work, and we would go see a movie or just go get some dinner.

I remember that there was a point at which I realized that Jesse and I had been spending a lot of time together. I was a little bit weirded-out, to be perfectly honest. Jesse and I were good friends, and I loved our friendship, but I didn’t know exactly what to think about the prospect of it turning into something more. I distinctly remember realizing that Jesse called me virtually every day, and thinking that was a little strange … but then realizing that on the days when I didn’t hear from him, I always, without fail, called him … and wondering exactly what that meant.

At some point that fall, Jesse and I started watching movies just about every night, and cuddling while we did. It was odd, because we never made any physical contact like that, except when we were watching movies. And before long, we were renting videos every night, both knowing full well that we planned to snuggle up and watch them, but neither of us admitting that was the reason we wanted to rent the videos!

On Friday, Nov. 17, Jesse and I rented "Rules of Engagement," and went to my dorm room to watch it. As per usual, we cuddled while we watched it. After the movie was over, we just talked for a very long time, until Jesse finally looked at me and said, "Would it make things weird if I kissed you?" I told him I wasn’t sure, but we could find out … so he did … and I guess you could say it made things weird … or wonderful.