Marrying into the Sisterhood

Six years ago today my sister was sitting on a beach in Maui, honeymooning with her brand new hubby. As they sat, staring into a romantic sunset while feeling like the only two people on earth, each believed the serenity of that moment would last forever.

Until her cell phone began ringing off the hook.

I'm telling you, the nerve of some people! Barring an emergency, who on earth would call them repeatedly when everyone knew they were off enjoying their honeymoon?

Um, well, that would be me.

"Hey Challi, I'm sooooo glad you finally answered. No, no one is sick. Yes, yes, everything is OK. I'm sure. Yes, I know this is your honeymoon and that I called you on your "in case of emergency only" cell phone, without having an actually emergency to report. But, I wanted you to be the first person to know that we're engaged! Chris proposed!"

"He did WHAT?" she shrieked, "But he PROMISED he would wait until after I got home. Put him on the phone."

"HOW COULD YOU PROPOSE WHEN I'M A MILLION MILES AWAY???? YOU PROMISED TO WAIT. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???"

Welcome to the family, Chris.

There are certain rules of the sisterhood that you just can't break. And, apparently, rule number #1 is that all proposals must take place when sisters are within a 10 mile radius of one another. Anything further than that could cause unnecessary bodily harm to the fiance. Or at the very least, an earful from future sister-in-law. Especially if the most sentimental of the two sisters is the one that is millions of miles away, unable to share the joy in person.

Poor man.

Clearly he thought he'd covered all his bases. He had asked the father for daughter's hand in marriage. He had hugged the mother and promised he'd take care of baby daughter forever. He had included sister on ring selection and made her privy to proposal timeline. He had even made sure to plan out a very romantic proposal.

But, what he failed to anticipate was the excitement of actually holding the ring in his trembling hands and the hole it would burn in his pocket upon purchasing. Which in turn caused the bumping up of the asking and nullification of the "I'll wait to propose until after future sister-in-law returns from honeymoon" vow.

Thankfully for hubby, sisterhood rule #2 is if a fiance breaks rule #1 because of extreme excitement and desire to proclaim eternal love of baby sister to the world, said fiance is immediately released of any former promises made to honeymooning older sister and forgiven by her permanently.

Which is a really good thing considering that six years ago today, I said yes.

(Well, actually I said, "No Way! Are you serious??? NO WAY!!! Seriously?? Get out of here! REALLY??" To which he replied, "Is that a yes?", but let's just skip past that since it wasn't exactly the reaction I hoped I'd have to the greatest question my heart had ever been asked.)

Chris, I truly believed that I could never love you more than I did in that moment.

If I could go back to that point in time, knowing what I know today, I would have interrupted your wonderful speech that professed your undying love for me. You know, the one that neither of us can actually recall the details of because we were so excited. I would have knocked over those candles in an attempt to fall into your arms a few moments sooner.

I wouldn't have been able to wait for you to finish asking before screaming, "YES!!!"

"YES! YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!"

So much has changed since that day six years ago, including the depth of my love for you. Although I can't see how I'll ever love you more than I do today, I'm 100% certain I will.

Oh, and I can't end this post without mentioning that according to sisterhood rule #3, if one interrupts the other's honeymoon with a phone call, the necessary penance is to publicly acknowledge said behavior 6 years later.

Happy Anniversary Challi and Rob! (give or take 2 days)