It was summeer 2013 and on the way back from one of those infamous Taco Bell runs, I felt in my soul that my life was about to change in a really good way.
I was 18 then and had only run into Ben a couple of times and really didnt know him at all. In typical Hallmark fashion I ran into him while he was carrying chairs at church and I remember his face turning bright red and I found that notable but again hadn’t a clue who he really was and didnt know he kinda liked me from afar.
On another occassion when he was helping out at Wolf Mountain Christian Camp for a week, I remember seeing him smile and hearing him laugh at some lunchtime down at the Mill and thinking whoever marries this man is one lucky woman. It was a really endearing smile and such a good laugh. But it was a passing thought, just an observation. I had no idea at this point Ben had been trying to sit at my table or cross my path somehow all week long.
At the end of the summer he popped up in my Facebook messages and asked if he could get to know me more through writing letters. I had signed for another year at Wolf Mountian Chrisitan Camp and he was on his second year in IIM in southern California, so it would be a long-distance kinda thing. I talked to a couple people and also just had nothing to lose. That’s literally why I said yes, because I had nothing to lose.😂
I didn’t know this guy personally, had barely spoken one word to him, but I did know from others that he was a good guy and so why not?! I replied pretty quickly to his FB message with a yes.
Eventually letters turned to phone calls turned to Skype calls (all starting to sound pretty “old school right about now😆) and we wasted no time getting to know one another.
A couple months into those long-distance letters, we began dating. A mere couple months after that Ben asked my Dad if he could marry me. Now remember, we had only known each other a total of 5 months, not even dating that whole time so Dad said, according to Ben, “I’m not saying no but I’m not saying yes. Come back to me in March.”
Of which Ben came back in March and Dad said yes and we talked marriage in April then got engaged in December and married the following May.
It’s been 11 years now and I was right all those summers ago sitting at that lunch table. The woman who married Ben would be lucky.❤️
By God’s goodness and grace we have built a wonderful life together and have laughed with and loved each other through so many seasons. We are kindred spirits and also husband and wife and that’s been such a beautiful gift all these years!!
That’s all I have for the blog today. A poem will follow sometime next week with some more on the matter. The poem is currently floating around in my mind, disjointed, but today is just for the straight memories that warm my heart!
Celebrating Nine Years of Marriage & the Northern Lights (!!)
Sierra V. Fedorko 
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