Friday the 13th – our lucky day!

I’m breaking with tradition and writing about a day before it even happens because I know I’ll be too busy to write tomorrow!

Friday, June 13, 2008, Mark and I went to have a pre-marital counseling session with my brother-in-law, Rob Izzett, who was going to be officiating at our wedding on 08/08/08.  We had a good session, but as we were driving away we were feeling a little depressed.  My stepmother was losing her battle with cancer and it was looking like she might die sometime around our wedding date.  We didn’t know what to do about it.

As we were entering Oregon City, Mark turned to me and said, “I have an idea.  Why don’t we elope this afternoon!”  That cheered both of us up considerably.  We drove straight to the courthouse and applied for a marriage license, but all of the judges had gone home early so that left us with the quandary of who to have marry us.  We were still hoping to have a wedding at some point and didn’t want to let anyone who would be attending know we were already married, so we couldn’t ask my brother-in-law.

We started calling every pastor we could think of.  Mark’s LDS pastor wasn’t home.  I called my Quaker pastor and he was in the middle of studying for a class he was taking.  He said he’d need to run it by the church elders and we should keep looking in the meantime.  We called the pastor of a Hispanic church I was attending but his family was in the middle of a family crisis so he was unable to do it.  We tried calling Mark’s pastor again, but he still wasn’t home.  (Turns out he was gone for several days.)  Finally my pastor said that the elders had approved him doing it, but we’d need a couple witnesses who knew us.

We were still trying to not let anyone on our guest list know what we were doing, so we started calling people that were on our “B” list.  None of them could come on the spur of the moment.  In desperation Mark called the two missionaries from his church thinking both of them had visited us frequently in our home.  They agreed to come and be witnesses for us.  Turns out one of them was Tongan and had only been in the US for a week.  All he knew how to say in English was “Hello”!

My Quaker pastor, the two LDS missionaries and Mark and I met at Clackamette Park where the Clackamas River runs into the Willamette River.  It was a beautiful evening.  There were boats and ducks out on the river.  The sun was still up and sparkled on the water.  One of the missionaries used my camera to take pictures of the ceremony.  As soon as it was over, the missionaries left and we invited my pastor to have dessert at the restaurant right next to the park.  After we sat down and ordered, Pastor Ken said, “Well, I guess I should ask you some questions!”  He asked all the things a pastor would normally ask before marrying a couple.  I am grateful that he had the faith in us to reverse the normal order!

Tomorrow (the 13th) we will be working all day, but after work we plan to dress up and go to Fast Eddies and order off the expensive part of the menu that we’ve never been able to afford before.  We are going to celebrate six of the eight happiest years of our lives (the other two being our courtship).

I have to say that I am so proud of my husband and so grateful that he chose me.  I am as in love with him today as I was on the day we eloped.  He has been very good to me and he has put up with a lot from me.  I don’t know what I ever did to deserve so much happiness, but I thank God for bringing Mark into my life.  God is good!

2 thoughts on “Friday the 13th – our lucky day!

  1. When you mentioned about the two rivers running into each other, I like it as the two rivers “join” together, just as we joined out lives together six years ago.. I love Babe!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *