True Love Doesn’t Count the Candles on Your Cake

Today is my husband’s 40th birthday.  He’s been a little bummed about this number for the better part of a year now.  I just can’t believe that we’ve been together for so many years.  He’s my best friend.  There is no one I’d rather spend a free day with.  There is no one I’d rather travel the world with.  At the end of the day, he’s the one I want to talk to.  When he’s with me, everything feels better.

We have history together.  I don’t care to remember much about life before Josh came along.  All of our adult life has been spent together.  We have celebrated more than 20 birthdays together and almost that many anniversaries.  We’ve made plans and dreamed together.  We’ve become parents together.  We’ve bought and sold houses, started and quit jobs, gotten lost and found ourselves again, laughed and cried together.  We share our past.  Occasionally when I look at a newly wed couple and think how sweet it would be to be falling in love all over again- I stop myself and think of all that history that we would lose if we started over again.  I remind myself that I would never really want to go back and do it again- it’s too much work to recreate what we have.  I don’t envy those just starting out.  Our relationship just keeps getting richer and deeper and more fulfilling as the years roll by.

We also have chemistry with each other.  I remember one time when I was talking with my girlfriends about our husbands.  I said, “I love that Josh can still give me butterflies in my stomach with just one look across a crowded room.”  I wasn’t being sappy or gushy, I was just making a comment that we hadn’t lost that spark.  I was shocked and sad when several of my girlfriends commented that their spouses had NEVER given them butterflies in their stomaches.  I thought,  “Wow, we really have something special then.”  I quit taking that for granted and now I know that we have a rare thing.  We can read each other’s moods without saying anything.  We know each other better than anyone else knows us.  We are one.

It’s pretty stereotypical to say that men struggle with turing 40- I’ve known many women who struggle with that number too.  But I want my husband to know that in my eyes, he’s never been more handsome than he is right now.  In my heart, I’ve never loved him more than I do at this moment.  I love that we are growing older together and we still want to be together.  I don’t take that for granted.  I know that is the stuff that dreams are made of.

So happy 40th birthday to the love of my life and my best friend.  Our adventure is just getting exciting!  I love you, Babe!

This Boy

This boy turns 17 today.  Happy Birthday Boy.

This boy is the child who made me a mother for the first time.

This boy is the one who wanted to be rocked to sleep… for hours… every night.

This boy is the child who loved Thomas the Tank Engine.

This boy used to stand at the screen door crying if I went into the garden without him.

This boy talked my ear off for the first 6 years of his life and must have spent all his words because now he’s pretty quiet.

This boy was my little companion, my buddy, until he converted to the Man Side of the family and started copying everything his Daddy did.

This boy was homeschooled through 4th grade and would still enjoy NOT going to school simply because it means he has to get up and put clothes on every day.  I’m worried about college.

This boy is spending his last year with us.  I am very conscience of the fact that he will be leaving the nest next spring.  I feel sure that he will launch into adult life nearly totally prepared, at least as prepared as any other 17 year old boy.  But he has a lot of “firsts” ahead of him still.

He can navigate through an airport and control his own passport and documents, but he has never worked a job.  He has a driver’s license in Minnesota, but we live in Costa Rica where it’s illegal for him to drive.  He can speak two languages, but he needs to learn to speak up for himself sometimes and not be so shy.  I’m pretty sure there will be girls who try to get his attention, but he doesn’t know all the games that girls can play with a boy’s heart.  He knows how to do his own laundry and wash his own dishes and clean his own bathroom, but he doesn’t do it voluntarily… I guess that’s normal.  At least he’s got good personal hygiene.

This boy is stepping over the threshold into manhood right before my very eyes.  I couldn’t be more proud of him and the depth of his Godly character.  I am excited for all the future holds for Taylor.

Happy 17th Birthday Boy.