Nine years ago, in the midst of a snowstorm bad enough for my college to cancel classes, Steve and I got engaged.

He drove down the day before to beat the storm. We met up in the morning on Valentines Day to go out to breakfast and take a hike.

The hike part might sound a little crazy, but there was a little waterfall we liked to visit so we bundled up and braved the snowy cold. Of course I didn’t know then that it was part of Steve’s plan. I just thought it was a fun adventure.

Six years later I sat down at the computer to write about that day, this time through the lens of the loss of our first daughter, Faith. I shared these words…

We hiked through snow drifting deeper than my knees and followed the frozen stream back.

In front of the waterfall, on one knee on the ice, he asked and I said yes.

Love is not that giddy feeling, when the sparkle of a new ring catches your eye and all of your life together stretches before you full of unending possibility.

Love isn’t just for certain days, to be celebrated with flowers or sweet words in a card.  Love does not come and go with changing emotions and circumstances.

Love, true love, trudges through the snow with you.  Holds your hand when the road is full of trials alongside the triumphs.  Pulls you close when it’s dark and you’re sad and you just need someone to let you cry.

The sorrow I felt when I wrote those words has faded. But the love that stands by my side through it all is still here.

Our story continues, with new joys, new challenges, and a future full of unknowns. Whatever the days and years ahead may bring, my answer to the question of sharing them together is the same one I gave at the base of those frozen falls…

The answer  is still yes.