3285ish days (13 march 1999 --- 13 march 2008)

my adorable wife,

our life together started many years ago and what i knew at the tender age of 14 could not have been truer. i wanted nothing more than to know who you were. i have come to find that learning who you are has told me more about the person i have become; a pleasurable, unexpected outcome. in an attempt to explain how you have helped me grow and shown me life i stumble. a situation foreign to me. you know me as never being at a loss for words but expressing exactly how a person like you makes a person like me feel comes harder than i would like. none-the-less, let me try.

when i look at our daughter, the entire world makes sense. i'm not sure that i'll ever know the exact question asked to me but i do know for certain that she is the answer. i look at her, and i get it. a strong sense of completeness. a feeling only you could have helped me achieve. for that i owe you everything. the constant state of awe that little girl puts me in makes life worth living, and again without you that would have never happend. outside of you and i maintaining our relationship, she stands as our greatest accomplishment to date. my proudest moment.

peaks and valleys seem to be the theme for many relationships and ours is certainly not immune to this. however, with that said, i think the tops of our peaks supremely tower over the depths of our deepest valleys. even though we may run across low times we always bounce back and grow immeasurably from them. it's a continuous learning process and we know the importance of not trying to figure everything out at once and laughing along the way.

i recently had a conversation with a guy at work and he wanted to know the opposite of home. i told him in a word it would be lost or discomfort. after i thought about that i realized that's how i feel about you.

for me...

... you're home.

happy 9th anniversary

your loving husband