A Real Anniversary

Steven & I

 As of last Friday, we have been dating for one year. Finally a real anniversary! I was a little worried that I would be blue, missing Steven even more than usual. However, while I did think about him tons, the sadness didn't come like I expected it to. In a way, I think this long distance relationship is the easiest difficult thing. Of course any distance can feel like too much when you want to be with the one you love. But I have confidence in him, and most importantly, trust that God is taking care of us. Yes, it is old fashioned that we can only communicate by letters. Yes, I sometimes feel very frustrated by the fact that he won't get my letters until a month or more after I send them. But you know what? In a lot of ways, I think it's easier. If he had access to a phone or internet, I would have a much harder time being involved in my life here. Furthermore, the separation makes the little contact we do have even more meaningful.

Our calendar :)

The night before our anniversary, I was in the living room on my computer when I checked my Facebook and noticed a message from someone named Elmer and right below it read "(message from Steven Shafer)". My heart skipped a beat and my lungs paused mid breath. I shook my head trying to comprehend what I was seeing. I giddily whisked my computer into my room, joyfully telling the girls that I had a message from Steven. I read the first message. Elmer explained that he was Steven's roommate and just happened to be visiting Majuro at the perfect time to send me a message from Steven for our anniversary. In the next message, I began to read, "Dearest Emily,..."--a whole beautiful letter from Steven. My heart was so full and happy; I felt like sunshine. Best news? He says he is coming to Majuro for Christmas! That means we'll get to talk.

The next day, I kept the happiness of that letter in my heart all the time. On my way home, I knew I didn't need flowers or chocolates or anything to make myself feel better. That letter is worth more to me than anything I could buy. However, there is something to be said for creating your own joy. Here's a little "secret" about me: I love flowers. I love wild flowers, I love lilies, I love roses, I love clover, apple blossoms, any flower (except those stinky white ones that grow on trees...lol). Steven told me that I had to promise to buy flowers for myself sometime during this year. So with my love of flowers in mind and promise to Steven, I decided to step into the little flower shop near our house. Earlier in the year I had gazed into it's windows every day. Eventually it dawned on me that the arrangements stayed the same. Odd, I thought. Don't they ever sell any? Then I realized I had been looking at fake flowers. I felt so deceived. Nevertheless, eventually (once again) I realized that they have real flowers there as well. Thus, when I stepped in on Friday afternoon, I cam out with a beautiful red rose, smiling so big I was about to laugh at my own happiness.

Still smiling...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*AHHH* (imagine sound effect here)

A little update:
I got a letter from Steven a couple weeks ago. He is trying to learn Marshallese and told me about about how ridiculous the letter "j" is. Apparently in Marshallese it occasionally sounds like a normal English "j" sound, but it also can sound like "ch", a French "j" like in deja vue, "s", and even a "ts" sound sometimes. Sounds pretty tricky to me, I'm pretty glad I'm trying to learn Spanish (jaja).
He went on for 2 whole [sides of] pages about how he was terribly ill until I was, as you can imagine, quite concerned. He thought he might have malaria. Don't worry, "only a 1 in 4 chance I would die if untreated" he tells me. One in four chance?! Yes, you can imagine I was rather concerned by this time. Thankfully a few sentences later he said he felt perfect now, it was just the flu. Also, Elmer says there isn't malaria on the island. Whew.
He told me a really cute story about one of his students. They had been reading stories about Jesus as a little boy in Bible class. One of his students named Matthew drew a picture of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at their house--with a coconut tree and coconuts all over the ground. Too cute :).
Overall, Steven sounds like he is doing really well. His mom just got a letter early this week, so that means that mine is on its way (she forwards them to me). In her letter he mentioned that he got 11 packages when the first boat came in! I'm really glad. It should save him from eating rice every single meal :).

I love him.