Happy 25th Anniversary

Wedding Day, May 11, 1985

There are some things that come along that can catch you by surprise. For example, last week's incredible amount of rainfall in Nashville was pretty much a surprise along with the subsequent flooding. Winning the lottery without ever playing the lottery would be a huge surprise. Winning the Boston Marathon or winning the Masters tournament, all would go down as a huge surprise and pretty much out of my realm of reality.

One thing does not catch me by surprise though. Being married to the most incredible woman in the world for 25 years is not a surprise to me. I knew she was a remarkable lady when I met her in college in Missouri. I knew about 4 months after we began dating that she would be the girl I would marry and spend the rest of my life with. I knew that I was blessed beyond all realm of knowable grace that God had planned me for her and her for me. Being married to her for these past 25 years is really no surprise to me.

But . . . there have been some surprises in our 25 years of married life together. Some of them have been very good surprises and some of them have been tough to go through. Losing my mom and her dad in a span of about 9 months was a tough time. Having the girls has been a great joy. Learning to parent and continuing to learn has been so much fun. Life has been good and even better than good, it has been great with Sondra.

So . . . my fortunate bride . . .You are more beautiful today than you were that Saturday in May in 1985. I will never forget seeing you come through the door and down that aisle hanging on to your dad. I was so excited, scared, nervous and ab0ut to scream with joy and pee my pants with fear and excitement. I did not know what the next years would be like other than I was going to be with you and that has made it more than alright. You are the love of my life. You are me. I am you. Without you I would not be complete.

What an incredible 25 years. What an amazing woman you are. I love that you still think "I am all that and a bag of chips." I love being your man. I am all yours. You have my heart. You have everything I have to give. I am thankful that God blessed me with you. I do not deserve you and everyone who knows you knows that you must have done something bad a long time ago to deserve me. ;-)

Happy 25th. I am so excited about what God has in store for us. I am alot grayer than I used to be; I am not as fast as I once was; I fall asleep earlier at night; I cannot see and hear as good as I once did; but with all of those things diminishing, the one thing that has gone the other direction is my love for you.

Just one last thing I need to say to you . . . I love you MORE.