One of my favorite days...

Today is one of my favorite days. To understand, you'll have to have some background information. So let's travel back in my little mind (don't mind the mess), to the summer of my seventeenth year.

My family (Mom, Dad, Thomas, and I) were off on one of our summer vacations. They will have to chime in as to where, I just remember we were in Texas. I think. Anyway, as was our summer tradition, we left our home for a week, played, hung out, listened to Dad count down how many days were left until he had to go back to work, and generally had a good time. I was dreaming of my Senior year, trying to con Thomas out of more space in the back seat, and not really having a care in the world. Dad had a stack of CD's in the front seat that would make any music lover jealous, and I was sure I would only know/like about a third of them. Usually I would not remember any of them. But this year was different. We had pulled up in front of a hotel (again, don't know which one, or even what state it was in for sure. Told you it was messy here in my mind) and Daddy went in to check us in. And this song came on. The opening chords hooked my attention, and I grabbed the case to see who it was, what song it was, and then ripped the case open to read the words along with the song. It was some odd looking group (big hair wantabes) named Geoff Moore and the Distance (If you know them, you know they really aren't wantabes. But hey, I was a teenager). And I instantly became a fan for life. And something more happened then too.

I fell in love. Really. Some would say it was a teenage girl thing, I did at the time. But I really fell in love. This song, it summed up everything I thought love should be. What my husband should be. How I wanted to be loved, and thought of. Too bad I didn't know anyone like that. Yep. Figured out right then and there, that there wasn't a single guy I knew that fit this bill. Buh. Back to the drawing board for me! Anyway, "If You Could See" set a standard for me, and I began measuring every guy I met by that stick.

Fast forward a year. The summer after my senior year. I was staring college, and independence square in the mouth. Not that I don't love home, but I was 18 and ready to see if I was as smart, independent, and grown up as I thought I was. I was at church camp for my last year, and was acting the the top hen in the hen house! I was headed to OBU in the fall, so spent quite a bit of time at The Hut (OBU's recruiting office at Falls Creek). They had a staff of three, Amy, Nathan, and Heath,I think, and they were likable enough. Except for this one guy. He was obnoxious, and a know-it-all. We did NOT click or get along. No need to even get the measuring stick out! At least that's what I thought on Monday. But on Thursday of that week, things changed. Each one of the staff got an afternoon off, and Thursday was Heath's. I was glad. I could hang out at The Hut with out him being there. He was leaving and going to get the others a Coke, and asked if I wanted to come along. Grr... I said yes just to be nice, and found out later he only asked because he thought it would be rude not to offer, but hoped I'd say no. After spending the afternoon talking, laughing, and maybe just a little bit of flirting, I decided maybe Heath wasn't a know-it-all after all. There was only a day and a half left of camp, but we were inseparable. It was time to get out the stick and see how this guy measured up.

But then it happened. He walked me back to my cabin because it was pouring rain, dark, and he wanted to make sure I got back safe and sound, and before curfew. And with the sweetest kiss on the cheek at the door, he said to me, "If only you knew what I see when I look at you". Now some guys would say that was the BEST line ever, but I knew right then I could throw my measuring stick away. I was never going to need it again. (If you don't understand why, go back and check out the song's link. Go ahead. I'll wait.) That summer, the summer of 1995 was the start of something big.

So what does all that have to do with today, December 4th? Well, today would be that boy's birthday. I know, this seems an odd remembrance for a birthday. Kind of sounds like an anniversary memory. But not to me. Our anniversary is full of wedding memories, and past anniversaries. But this is what I remember on Heath's birthday. The first week I knew him, For his Mom and Dad and family, they remember that week in December 35 years ago, and rightfully so. That was when they first met him. I only go back 14 years. And I remember a first kiss, a promise, and a joining of two hearts. Man I love this guy! We had that song sung for us during our wedding in 1996, and it still makes me misty eyed every time I hear it. (Especially if it's Heath who is singing it!) So today, I say Happy Birthday Heath. And this: It's all of the light, and the grace, your belief in me that drives me to say, that I promise you a continued faithful love, forever true!