In late January Carla came down to visit Kathy and she wanted to see me one more time before I moved back to Hamilton. We went to dinner with Kathy and Dan on Saturday and spent the evening with them. The next day being Sunday we all went to church and lunch. Following lunch Carla and I went skating with Ben and Sarah. I had a good time. I asked Carla to come to my place for supper as Kathy and Dan and the family had to go out. I thought it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Carla and I ate dinner and talked the rest of the evening. I remember sitting across the table and thinking, "This is what I’m missing."

Shortly after that I was lying in bed when I heard God say, "Don’t be afraid to take Carla as your wife." Wow! What a shocker! It was something I had been waiting for for many years. I just didn’t think it could happen so quickly. The next challenge was how to tell Carla what God had told me. You just don’t go up to a girl and tell her that God told you to marry her. A few more months passed by, I moved back to Hamilton, and we continued to email daily. We also began phoning each other periodically.

One week in April, the emails were getting more serious. Carla added a PS to one: "For future reference, I prefer white gold rather than yellow gold." My eyes must have popped out of their sockets! That statement took me by complete surprise. I now knew that this was the time to tell her about what God had told me.

One day shortly after that I went to the store just to check the price of rings. I fell in love with one and decided to buy it on the spot.

The week before Carla’s visit in May I went to Sam Lawrence Park to pick out a spot to propose to Carla. I had had many ideas on how to ask her: take her to a Blue Jays game and propose using the Jumbotron. Another was a sort of Alice in Wonderland idea, with the cake that says "Eat me", and the drink that says "Drink me", and the ring that say "Marry me." I finally decided on a more private moment at the park in the evening overlooking the city. After much wandering around the park, I decided on a spot under the flagpoles, as it afforded the best view of the city.

To my surprise, it was a lot darker by the flagpoles that night than when I had originally checked the spot. I quickly looked around for the nearest lamppost and I got Carla to move down by showing her another part of the city. Finally I decided to take plunge. I asked Carla to be my wife standing there huddled together on that cool May evening in Sam Lawrence Park overlooking the city. Carla said "Yes." And then we shared our first kiss.

Carla - Before I met Jim in person, deep down I knew that he would be the man I would marry. But as time went on I got a little confused. There were so many unanswered questions, especially with Jim moving to Ontario. How would we manage such a long, long distance relationship?

We visited again in January, in February and twice in March. On April 1st, Jim left for Ontario. I wasn’t really sure what was going on in his head, but I knew that leaving me here was hard for him to do.

In April we started talking, via email, about what we were really thinking. In a very short time we had agreed that we wanted to marry each other. Wow! Things went so fast. I could hardly wait to see Jim again. I flew to Hamilton on may 10, 2000. Jim picked me up at the airport late that evening. We made a stop at Tim Horton’s for a bite to eat. Then Jim said he wanted to show me something. "OK." He took me to Sam Lawrence Park on the edge of the escarpment where we could overlook the city and Lake Ontario. It was a little chilly and Jim was shaking. I found out very soon that he was shaking not only from the cold, but also because he was nervous. We walked a bit then he said he had a question for me. "Will you marry me?" And he opened a box to reveal a diamond ring. "Oh Jim, I will marry you!" Wow, he sure didn’t waste any time! I hadn’t even met his parents yet! What a special memory that night is.