My Only Love

Awesome

Four hours of shopping!

Are you serious?!?

Moving from one location to another location.  In and out of the car.  Analyzing.  Imagining. Evaluating.  Deciding. How can a guy enjoy something so much when normally it would be an activity that is so near the bottom of his list?

By doing it with someone he adores and for some people he loves and whom he is missing.

This was how I began a 15 hour long celebration with my girlfriend and wife of 45 years.  Yesterday we celebrated our wedding anniversary.  When I finally dropped into bed last night ... sometime after midnight ...  I was disappointed that our day and date had ended.

Lunch at Stone Cliff above the Clackamas River.  Enjoying a beautifully warm and sunny day.  Diving to Salem with the top down on Pam's convertible.  Praying for Becca with her parents before she left for two months in Uganda.  Enjoying professional baseball at the Salem-Kaiser Volcanoes Stadium.  And a late night snack before driving home.  A day filled with prayers, laughter, gratitude, and conversation. Conversation. And more conversation.

My previous two wedding anniversaries were celebrated in Uganda.  We threw big parties for our friends and family there.  We had a big dinner, loud bands, and lots of dancing.  And, we worked and worked and worked.  This year I had only one request.  Okay ... two.  No parties and I want to spend the whole day with just you.  Peter wasn't driving the van.  No one was with us.  It was just the two of us.  All day long.  Just me and My Only Love.

How did I get so fortunate to enter a covenant relationship this girl to spend my whole life with her?

God is the only explanation.

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?  She is more precious than rubies.  (Proverbs 31:10)

A man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord.  (Proverbs 18:22)

This blog is usually consumed with stories from the work I do in Africa.  But, without this gift from the Lord, I would not be effective and leave any impact there.  Please humor me and allow a personal expression of my life outside of my work.  Rejoice with me over the wife of my youth.  I'm a blessed and rich man.

Click here to view a video tribute to my treasure.