Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ The Big 40 and A Love Story!

Happy!


I am so happy to wish my husband a "happy birthday"!  It is hard to believe that he turned 40 this week, and that I am only a few months behind him.  It seems like we were fresh, young college kids just the other day.  We met in a criminology class called Crime and Punishment.  My dear husband has made up a few silly jokes about that over the years.  I arrived late for the class and ended up in the back of the room being heckled by some trouble making boys.  I spent the entire class trying to decide where I could sit for the next class, so I could be left alone.  The class was packed and there were not very many options.  There was a young soldier in the front row (everyone knows the nerds and serious students sit in the first two rows).  He looked like a safe bet.  I saw a broken seat behind my future beloved and waited to move the desks around after class so I could sit behind him.  When I arrived the next week, my plan had worked.  Everyone had skipped the broken desk, and I had my seat behind the young soldier.  Now, I could concentrate on this class and get another A (I was more than a little obsessed with my GPA back then)!  Or, that is, I thought I would be left alone!! 

Happiness is taking a walk with your beloved and family.

Funny!

Just months before that fateful class, I had begun praying and looking for my future husband.  I was a young, single mother of a very special needs child and had only dated one boyfriend in my past.  This was not going to be easy, or so I thought.  I had my list of what I was looking for and, funny thing was, that young soldier did not even get a second glance from me at first.  After all, I was a Quaker.  A Quaker and a soldier ~ who would have thought?  Apparently, that soldier had other ideas.  He asked me out after just a few classes.  Thinking there was no way that he could be the answer to my prayers, I used my typical "get rid of the guy" technique and told him, "I am a single mother of a very high end special needs preschooler."  He nodded his head and asked if it would be hard for me to get a babysitter.  I told him that I was not an easy girl and would only be eating dinner with him ~ nothing else.  He asked if Friday would work. WOW!

We surprised dh at work with cake and
all of the Big 40 stuff the party store had to offer.

Pretty!

To make a long story short, we were a couple from that day forward.  He met everything on my list and more.  To my amazement, he was great with my son, Tim, and routinely helped out if I had classes when Tim's preschool was closed.  He would sit in the back of my class and play with Tim or walk the halls with him outside my class.  He was and still is the real thing and pretty awesome!

Real!

It hasn't always been easy.  We have adopted some children that are very challenging at times.  We have had to make small and large sacrifices to keep me at home.  My husband works hard to provide for us in a job that brings him little pleasure.  Of course, we both have real flaws that trip us up at times.  But, it has been good.  Thank you David!  I have loved you in my 20's, 30's and soon to be 40's.  I look forward to loving you in my 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and beyond.

Look what came of those two lovebirds.

Blessings,

Dawn