An Important Message

I have so many stories to tell you. And I will in the coming blog posts. You see, I have spent the last 48 hours in Gatlinburg with my beautiful wife, Kristi, celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. We've had a blast. Some of the stories have involved...
 - Abe Lincoln on the strip.
 - Hiking with Baljeet and his girlfriend.
and of course...
 - Billy the "grabby" waiter.
I'll get to those stories in time. I promise. But for right now I have something extremely important to say.

I Love My Wife!
13 years ago today she said "I do" when asked if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. I'm so thankful she did. I thought this would be an easy entry to write, but I've been sitting here in this cabin in Gatlinburg for almost an hour writing paragraphs and then deleting them. Somehow my words just can't seem to say enough how much she means to me. Even beyond that, that they can't really express how thankful I am for her.

You may find this hard to believe, but I'm not perfect. I'm definitely not a perfect husband. In these 13 years, I've messed up in almost every way a guy can mess up and somehow, she still loves me. Somehow she still allows me to be the guy that people look at in the mall and wonder.."Why is SHE with HIM?!?

You know what I mean...
She's a pretty little school teacher. I'm a big goofy doofus.
She gets concerned over wrinkled clothes and microscopic stains. I define laundry with words like "clean enough."
She's intelligent and witty. I have to think hard about how to put coherent sentences together, much less funny ones.
She's got a heart for kids and caring for other people. I've proved time and time again that I'm extremely selfish. (something God and I are really working on right now.)

I'll never understand why God brought us together. By that, I mean I really don't deserve to be this happy. But I know He did. For some reason He loved me enough to make Kristi for me and introduce us. Without a doubt He made us for each other. Somehow, we fill each other's gaps. I really don't want to quote cheesy movie lines, but I could totally tell her "you complete me."

Kristi and I after hiking 3 miles up t
 Rainbow Falls in Gatlinburg 03/13/11.

Kristi, I love you more than my lowly vocabulary can express. You are my best friend, my confidant, my encourager, and my wife. As you know, the morning after mine and your first date, I told my Mom "That's the kind of girl I want to marry."  I'm so glad you said "yes" when I asked you years later. I've made a ton of mistakes in our 13 years of marriage and I know I'll make more. But I promise they'll be a whole new list of mistakes. =) Thankfully, I'm learning how to be the husband you deserve with each mistake. God is showing me daily how to love you like Christ loves the Church. Thank You for loving me as much as I know you do.

I am so thankful...
for the open communication we have with each other,
for the support you give me and my ministry,
for the awesome mother you are to our sons,
for the relationship you have with Christ,
for your forgiveness when I fail you,
for your sense of humor,
and of course..
for the fact that you're incredibly hot!

Happy 13th Anniversary, Kristi.
This is only the beginning.
I love you!