23 years. 8401 days. 3 miscarried babies. 3 born babies. 2 dogs, 2 cats, numerous fish, 3 hermit crabs and a bird. 8 vehicles. 2 apartments—one in California, one in Florida. 2 houses. Too many bikes to count. 1 husband. Together, beating the odds.
I’m glad I keep a journal, because I have written record
of so much that’s gone on in those 8401 days. 34 days before that count started, though, I wrote about what I thought the promises were that I’d be making that March 2nd day 23 years ago. Here’s what I said:
“The main thing I think I’m committing to is knowing him better than anybody else, and always being there to help make him the best that he can be. I’m promising to search out his innermost thoughts, and to listen carefully. I’m promising to point out his rough spots and to help sand them down, and to polish up his bright spots so they show up even better. I’m promising to let him know that I love him even when it may seem to him that no one else does. I will be his shelter. I’m promising to provide a home for him that is a haven, one he will be loathe to leave and anxious to get back to. I’m promising to reveal myself to him as I do to no one else. To let him point out the rough spots in me that no one else is able or willing to. I’m promising to let him take care of me and thus encourage that nurturing, caring, providing, leading attitude that comes from knowing you are really and truly needed. I’m promising to be the church to his Jesus. And it’s not going to be easy. But it’s going to be worth it.”
Happy anniversary, Hunny. It has definitely not been easy, but it has most definitely been worth it. Here’s to many, many more.
Compelled 
I don’t journal–more of a live in the moment kind of guy. But I do enjoy looking back into my past. I remember always having the want to be married. And even though, during our engagement, I learned that many of my expectations were unrealistic–I willingly, joyfully stepped into that mysterious mixture of God’s sovereignty and man’s freewill: I chose Stephanie, and yet received her as God’s gift to me. I joke with a lot if guys, “I married UP,” and she helps me to live UP. She has kept all the promises she listed above. I cannot write that eloquently on my best day.
So I’ll just say now, like I said on this day 23 years ago: “I [still] do!”
D