Ever notice how a small, seemingly insignificant action can have profound impact? You help someone cross a street, you give a hand to a single parent struggling to juggle baby and stroller and luggage, or you do a friend a favor. It can change a life, for better or for worse.

Let me tell you a story about how one woman’s actions had a deep and lasting impact on my life. Without the woman pictured here with me, I would not have met my husband, had my 4 babies, and countless other events would have either not happened or been altered significantly.

She was my college roommate and one night, about 19 years ago, when we probably should have been writing a paper for a class or something, she dared me to call a random personals ad out of the newspaper (yes, the newspaper). It was a joke, and I’m not normally motivated by a dare, and I am certainly not a risk taker, but for some unknown reason, I took the dare. I called the number in the ad, left an awkward message, and figured the joke was over. An hour later, I got a phone call. From a man. Who I had just called. There was nothing to be done, and we set a date. The sooner the better to be over and done with it, I figured.

A few days later, we met, we talked, we fell in love. And the rest is history.