The Love of my Life

In a mere 20 minutes, the love of my life & I will be celebrating our 23rd anniversary.  Well, we will not be celebrating it in 20 minutes, but it will be the beginning of the day when God's hand was working furiously in our lives, despite, or maybe because of who we were.

John & I met in a club in NYC.  

This alone should tell you that this is the beginning of an interesting story. 

It is.

We were married a mere 5 months later.  I was 17 and a high school senior.  He was 19 and in college.  We knew what we were doing.  We had that kind of wisdom at such a young age.

And please note, that previous sentence is dripping with sarcasm.

Neither of us were Christians at the time, and no one, and I mean NO ONE thought it would last. (Well, we did. lol) That is except our soon to be brother in law.  Who was a Christian, and believed in the sanctity of marriage.  I am sure he prayed furiously and faithfully for us.  It worked.

Well, here we are 23 years later, and no regrets.  Thats not true.  I have one regret.  I truly regret that I was not prepared for family life.  I couldn't cook, clean, manage money, or any of those basic things of married life.  Both my oldest son, and my daughter are able to do those things.  They will be a blessing in that area.  And many more I pray.

And now, I will tell you what makes this man, that my precious Lord has blessed me with, so special.

When we started dating, we would take walks all over creation.  He loves the outdoors.  Often we would go to the park so I could swing.  There was always a time though,when at one point, I lose him to kids.  In a matter of minutes he would have a game of chase / tag/ duck duck goose or what ever other children's game he could come up with, going.  He would include any parent wanting to get off the bench, and the laughter could be heard from blocks.  The kids would complain when I finally was ready to go.  He still does this to this day.  

He is always ready for playing.

He loves the shore.  Or beach.  Or the coast.Or whatever your particular part of the nation calls it.   He decided one day he was going to take up surfing.  So he did.  Never mind that he had a full time job, a wife and 2 kids, and was going to college full time, and still managed to stay on the Dean's list..  It was time to surf, so down the shore we went.  3 - 4 times a week.  He came home one day so excited.  He bought me my own surf board!!! Ummm. Thank you?  I am not as excited about the shore as he is.  I only agreed to go everytime because I could sit on my beach chair and read while the children played in the sand.  The idea of surfing myself never crossed my mind. But I did it.  I have since given my board to Chloe.  

Every little girl needs her daddy to adore her.  And he does.  There is "no clown out there good enough for her"  (His words not mine) Chloe trust him,loves him and honors him without thought.  Even when she doesn't understand why he makes certain decisions concerning her.  She said to me one day, " I hope I marry a man who will love me and take care of me as much as daddy does."  She said this this past year.  This was not little girl talk, but young woman.   He has sat through many ballet performances.  (Though it seems like may kill him, to sit for so long.)  And he will sit through as many as his baby girl performs in..  And he will be ready afterwards with the biggest bouquet of flowers he could find.  For his princess.   Chloe is now being courted by a young man.  He has big shoes to fill.  Oh, AND he can't wait to meet his chinese baby girl.  He is just about jumping out of his skin with anticipation.

Here are some of the nieces.  They love sitting with Uncle John during holiday dinners.  He has stories to tell.  He is so goofy I keep hoping the girls will not shoot whatever they are drinking out their noses.  He is a funny guy. 

And he is a ham.....

...who doesn't care how silly he looks, as long as it makes me laugh.

And he is a man who will be there for you.  No matter what.  When we think we got it, he is there on the sidelines in case we need him. And I am always amazed at how many times when we think we have things under control, need him.  And he is there. 

I can take up pages if I start talking about his faith.  But I need to say this, he is radical.  He challenges me to live outside the american church mentality, and live like Jesus did.  The simple faith that is hard and self sacrificing.  I have to admit, there are times I want to be left alone in this, to do my own thing and just do it like everyone else.  He won't let me, and this makes me angry.  Often.  He is the leader of our home, and he takes his job of leading this family to the throne seriously.  And I love him for that.  Even if ticks me off, I know he is right. 

Yes, my God has blessed me with a wonderful man.  Yes he has his faults.  Yes there are times he drives me insane, and I thought I must have been 7 kinds of fools for marrying him.  Yes he may have a case of selective hearing problems.

He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me.  :)

Happy anniversary my love.