When I first noticed the cute guy
with the curls sticking out the back of his ball cap (it may be called a mullet
now, but back then we called it hockey hair and all the hot guys had it!)
sitting on his bike outside the church after youth group, I knew I wanted to
get to know him better. But I had no
idea that 25 years later I would be married to him and we would be raising 4
children together. When we got married
at the tender ages of 20 and 21, we had no concept of what life was going to
throw at us. We have made it through the
harder times by hanging on for dear life to the grace of God and to each
other. I have been blessed to be married
to this amazing man for the past 18 ½ years.
We have learned so much about life and each other as we have grown up
together and God has drawn us near to Him.
Over the years, these are some of the things that I have come to love
and appreciate about Ryan, in no particular order:
1.
He is patient, which is a good thing since I test his
patience regularly.
2.
He is kind and gentle.
3.
He trusts me.
4.
He washes dishes!!
6.
His dry sense of humour cracks me up all the time. He
delivers one-liners that make me giggle, while the kids just roll their eyes at
us.
7.
When he looks at me I feel beautiful.
8.
I trust him unreservedly because he has proved himself
to be trustworthy time and time again.
9.
He is an amazing daddy to our 4 kids. He loves them all uniquely and spends time
with them in ways that they enjoy. He
watches Dr. Who with Evan, plays badminton with Grace, card games with Rachel
and barbies with Faith.
10. He
works incredibly hard to provide for our family and to allow for me to be home
with the kids.
12. Ryan
is a gentleman.
13. He
makes me feel safe.
14. He
is handy around the house. When we first
got married neither one of us had lived on our own and we hadn’t had any
experience fixing things around the house, but four years later, when we bought
our first house, Ryan jumped right in.
With the help of his extremely talented Dad, he has tackled all kinds of
home improvement projects, big and small, over the years.
15. He
is innovative. He finds creative
solutions to all kinds of problems.
16. He’s
got my back – always!
17. He
doesn’t get mad at me for calling him in the middle of his work day to ask him
tech support questions, or to vent to him about the kids.
18. He
is humble.
19. He
is always helpful. Ryan prefers to work
behind the scenes and not have attention directed at him, but he can regularly
be found helping people move, ushering at church, directing traffic in the
parking lot, cleaning up messes of all kinds.
21. And,
he can cook!
22. He
forgives easily and asks for forgiveness quickly.
23. He
never complains! The workload in our
house is not equally distributed.
Somehow Ryan has ended up with all the icky jobs. He takes out the garbage, empties the compost
bin, cleans the litter box, sets the rat trap in the garage and disposes of
what he finds in it! :P And he does all
of these things with a smile on his face (maybe it’s more of a grimace
sometimes!)
25. I
think his salt and pepper hair is sexy. J
26. He
is a great kisser, and he doesn’t care if anyone is watching.
27. He
is a good listener. This was one of the
first things about Ryan that I fell in love with. There was a girl in our youth
group who had special needs. Many of the
other kids made fun of her, or avoided her because she talked and talked once
she got going. One day I saw Ryan listening
to her with compassion and giving her an awkward hug when she started to cry
about the other kids picking on her and I knew he was more than just another
cute boy, he had a caring heart.
28. There
is a place on his left shoulder where my head fits perfectly. When I am there, with my head on Ryan’s
shoulder, and his arms around me, all the problems of the world seem smaller
and more manageable.
29. He
continues to play board games and card games with me, even though I keep
kicking his butt. ;)
30. He
keeps me warm (because he’s so hot!) He
gives me his coat when I am too stubborn to wear my warm one because it doesn’t
go with my outfit and I never need a hot water bottle because I can just
snuggle up to him at night.
31. He
remembers! Never once has he forgotten a
birthday or an anniversary. And he
reminds me of things we have done or seen, when they have escaped my memory.
32. He
is honest, and when he has to say something to me that I might not want to
hear, he does it with tenderness and tact.
33. He
can be silly. This is not a side of Ryan
that everyone sees, but I love it when he goofs around with us.
34. He
never steals my chocolate (anymore! J)
35. He
tells me he loves me often and it is never empty words. I know he means it because he backs it up
with his actions.
36. He
likes to hold my hand.
37. He
prays for and with me and our children and reminds me, when I start worrying
about a situation, to bring it before God in prayer.
39. I
think it’s really cute when he falls asleep in strange places, like science
world or birthday parties.
40. He
is my best friend and I am extremely grateful that I get to spend the rest of
my life with him!
Happy Birthday My Love!! I look forward to celebrating many more with you.
