boyradd

Mimi Baker, Will You Marry Me?

Proverbs 18:22 – He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

That’s right. A marriage proposal. On my blog.

You might be thinking that this is crazy or stupid. But let me share a story.

Do you know how Mimi & I met?

It was a dark, stormy night…..oh wait, wrong story.

We met on Twitter.

That might be the reason the previous sentences and fragments are all under 140 characters.

But yep, it was two and half years ago. There was a group of 7 of us. Two were married (not to each other) and the rest of us were singles. We were the remains of a Christian Twitter group that disbanded. In this group were both Mimi and myself.

At some point in the conversation, the topic shifted to Disney’s Phineas & Ferb songs. She started singing (on Twitter) A-G-L-E-T. And I immediately responded. Throughout the day, the conversation started looking a lot like this:

@MimiBakerMN but its not even swinter yet

@MimiBakerMN or is it wummer?

@boyradd It’s TOTALLY wummer! #wearesosad

@MimiBakerMN can I request the straight jacket? Hey mimi, I think I know what I’m going to do today. Hey, where’s perry?

@boyradd Mom, Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence! You heard her Fred, we know what we’re going to do today! #rhubarbcremebrulee

@boyradd #doofenshmirtzevilincorporated

So that was evidently the beginning of a relationship. From there, we would talk to each other a lot on Twitter.

Proverbs 19:14 – House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

And I just need to say this….Disney, it is YOUR fault that I am asking this woman to marry me. I think you owe me and my soon to be family of 6 a week long vacation to Disney World, all expenses paid. Sound like a plan? #DisneyDads (or I wish I was)

That same year, I took my kids on an RV trip around the United States and part of Canada. We hit all the major hangouts. Niagara Falls, Badlands South Dakota, the Grand Canyon and some little unknown town in Minnesota.

Yep, Mimi lived in Minnesota.

Well, on this trip, we decided to take a small detour and spend the day with Mimi and her boys. The kids took her kayak and went out into the lake and she and I sat on the sidelines and talked.

There was one very key moment in that conversation. We were both talking about our pasts, our pains, and our baggage. As we were talking, I was sitting in a chair and she was on the ground. I looked down at her, and the tears in her eyes. I am sure she noticed I was looking at her, taking on her pain and about on the verge of tears, and she immediately looked down. But the look on her face was priceless.

I can’t explain it. It wouldn’t do it justice.

It was just a face of someone who is beautiful, inside and out, who has been hurt by so many people in her life that she was defeated.

I said to myself, as my kids and I drove away, “I would love to date her…but how?”

She lived in Minnesota and I lived in Maryland.

We had that one movie-style glance that showed us there was something more than Disney lyrics bringing us together.

Psalm 85:10 – Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

As I was driving, it was as if God was telling me, “Don’t worry, I’ll figure this one out.”

We would continue to correspond. Over Twitter primarily. Then emails. Then Skype. That’s when I found out she was moving to Virginia.

On Christmas 2012, she moved in with her parents in Virginia.

A few months later, I was moving out of my rental place and into my own house. When I did that, she decided to move into the rental house I had just left. She was now only 15 minutes from me by August 2013.

Yea, this is a long, drawn-out explanation of our journey.

And I am sure it has bored you.

But now I want to get to the serious business. The proposal.

Mimi Baker, if you would have me as your husband, I would love you take you as my wife. I cannot promise that life will be simple. As a matter of fact, as we have seen the past few years, I can promise that it will be pretty darn hard. I gave up the 6-figure salary to devote my time and attention to God and you, so we will never have the best of anything.

But there is one thing I will promise you.

I promise that you will always have someone to hold you. You will always have someone to listen to you. And you will always have someone to study God’s Word with. I will promise to give you many “meh” and “yes dear” over the course of our lives. And I promise that you will be the only focus of my desires.

I will always tell you I love you, even when I am trying at times to simply tolerate you (because I know that you are doing the same). And I will treat you like the queen you deserve to be treated like.

I love you Mimi Baker. I look forward to a life with you. A life of struggles and pleasures. A life that would simply be incomplete without you.

That said, I offer you this ring (And, yes, the ring is waiting at my house for you to come over to dinner tonight, it isn’t just a picture) and I pray you will say yes.

So, will you marry me, Mimi Baker?

Ephesians 5:25-28 – Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.