Here is Jared, so many years ago – and now today at age 24. I want to tell you a fun little story that began two decades ago…

In early January of 1992, we lived in Independence, Missouri, in a lovely blue house (yep, it was cool to paint your house blue in those days!) in a cul-de-sac with a giant, fenced-in backyard my hubby had helped to enclose for our busy little boys to have a safe place to play. We had three young sons at the time, aged 7 1/2, 5 1/2 and 4 and I was a good 3-months pregnant with the next - our fourth-born son, who would be born in June of that year.

 [Sidenote: If you’re too young to recall, a middle-aged, darling redheaded puppeteer named Shari Lewis, who has since passed on, was quite famous on television back then with her hand-puppet character, Lamb Chop, and her inspirational banter.] I remember clearly that we were all out celebrating our Jared’s 4th birthday with some friends and family. We gave him his little Lamb Chop puppet as a gift that night, which he still has even now, 20 years later.

My hubby and I were scheduled to leave for Singapore the next day, so we were having a festive, happy time, but were sad to be leaving the kids early the next morning. A wonderful, godly man named Sam Sasser, who had a marvelous impact in the Marshall Islands, helping to see so many lives transformed over years of living there with his family, along with the impact he’s had in the U.S. and around the world, had invited us to be part of a team he put together to serve as the faculty of a worship conference in Singapore, and to speak at some churches while we were there. My husband, Gregory, and Sam were dear friends and comrades before Sam passed away several years ago. Greg has many stories of this adventurous evangelist and pastor-friend who truly lived a life of faith while on the earth.

When we arrived in Singapore, we were hosted by a family who were members of the church where the conference was taking place. The husband was Chinese, the wife, Japanese. They were disciples of Jesus, and had destroyed many expensive tokens of worship from their old religion, Buddhism, when they came to know the Lord. They were very successful in business, and serious about their faith. There was the mother, father, grown son and daughter who lived in the home. The mother was a beautiful woman with pure white skin, who looked exactly like you’d think an elegant Japanese woman would look! We interacted lots with them during our stay and we had a good connection and felt such warmth and love from them. They were very kind and generous and when we were leaving, the mother gave me a beautiful ring, kept in a silk pouch, as a gift.

We arrived home to Kansas City and had a wonderful reunion with the boys. We’d found some fun gifts for them at the markets; Zorro and karate costumes and a popular, new hand-held game the folks in Singapore called ‘the brick game,’ but it was actually what we know now as Tetris. Funny what you remember, huh?!

When I showed Jared my beautiful ring, he suddenly asked, “can I have that for my wife when I get married?” It was such a surprising question from such a little guy, but I didn’t hesitate. I responded with, “Of course you can!” (or something like that) and in my heart, from that day on, the ring belonged to him.

I’ve always kept it safe with me throughout our many travels in its tiny, silk, cloth pouch. It’s lived in my jewelry box or bureau drawer or in the top of my closet in Independence, Missouri, Adelaide, Australia in the Golden Grove, Texas at 3 different addresses, 2 addresses in Northern California, and 5 addresses in Washington State.

For 20 years, it’s waited patiently for its rightful owner. Jared was married to his lovely wife, Heather, 3 years ago. He was waiting for the right occasion to finally give it to her, and decided this was the year. So, just 9 days ago, on her birthday, Jared presented Heather with the lovely golden ring, set with garnet stones – which just happens to be Jared’s birthstone.

Here they are tonight at Jared’s 24th birthday celebration.

God has a way of sealing the deal, don’tcha think?!