My beloved and me

When I first saw him, he walked into where I worked. He looked so handsome in his suit and tie, and he made me laugh. I think it was love at first sight for me.

For a couple of years we worked in the same company but did not have much interaction, at the time I was working in Human Resources, and we just did not cross paths much. Even then, my heart was "soft" for him.

We went through a change in our company, and I was given a choice of accepting a position "on the phones" or being laid off, I chose employement. So He and I started interacting more and more and became friends. I worked for a mortgage company, answering calls from mortgage holders who had questions on their mortgage accounts, including some collections.

About a week or two before Christmas he asked what I wanted for a gift, I told him a dinner out with him...on December 18 we had our first date.

We attended church together, we went for drives to the mountains, we would go explore antique shops, we had picnics and we use to love dancing. We enjoyed watching movies together and playing games...time went on we grew closer and closer...yet he never told me he loved me.

In the summer of 96, he told me he was taking the day off to help his brother with his car. I had spent the morning off the phones (which was a treat) and had been working downstairs in records pulling a ton of files to send out. I thought I would be doing this all day, but after lunch my supervisor told me she needed me on the phones...which made no sense as we were waiting for calls. So as I waited, I was dusting and cleaning my desk, and I recieved a call from a client who was disputing a massive amount of late charges she had accumulated. I knew this call, as I had had so many of them before, that I was not even looking at my computer. My supervisor signaled me to look at my computer and on mine and everyone elses in the building was a message

Jodie, I love you...will you marry me...

I put my caller on hold, when my beloved walked around the corner carrying roses, 2 yellow surrounded by a dozen red (friendship surrounded by love)...needless to say I got teary eyed. He got down on one knee and proposed, this was the first time he told me he loved me and when I responded yes, my supervisor sent messages to everyone "she said yes". He stayed a little longer and had to leave so I could finish out my day (right)...The ring he gave me...he had asked my father for permission to marry me a few days before, and my mother asked about a ring, he said he had not gotten it yet, she gave him my grandmother's ruby ring for an engagement ring...

Papers started flooding my desk as each person on the floor had told their caller what was going on, and I got a note about each caller and where they were from...We got well wishes from around the world...my caller had all of her late charges waived. (I still have each one)

Less than a year later, I walked down the aisle to become "MRS" (I still love that sound). My father was unable to walk, so my brother walked me down the aisle. My father gave me away in a voice tight with emotion, my mother was beautiful and full of joy.

The wedding was simple, we played Ode to a man desiring for the entrance...and "Shine Jesus Shine" on the way out. For our first dance, my beloved picked "What God has joined together"...but the tear jerker came when it was time for the "father daughter dance"...my father was in a wheelchair and his hands were deformed because of a battle with arthritis, so I played "Daddy's Hands"...The result was unexpected, everyone who knew us was crying, even my father, my favorite line "I will always remember the love of Daddy's hand".

My daughter was then 15, I told her she could invite some of her friends, they played the macarena, hokey pokey and the chicken dance...to funny.

Our wedding cake was a gift from a co-worker and was more beautiful that I could have ever imagined, our food...the company put together a "pot luck"...I set up a hersheys kiss pinata for the kids there. The day went by so quickly...

That was 13 years ago today...


347. The day I met Him, for he was an answer to prayer
348. Our first date, dinner and a movie
349. The proposal of a lifetime
350. That when he went to Iraq, God watched over him and returned him to me.
351. His love
352. His support in me homeschooling our grandchildren
353. Chicken and dumplings (one of his favorites)
354. His putting up with my attempts at cooking when we were first married.
355. His loving my cooking now
356. Our home
357. Our dreams for tomorrow
358. His love for God
359. His smile and laughter
360. His desire for me to be happy
361. My desire for him to be happy
362. Him still loving me after I have struggled through depressions.
363. His love for hunting, as that provides
364. His health.
365. His ex-girlfriends family, who were instrumental in him coming to God.
366. That my love for him grows each day, even when I cannot think I could love him more.
367. For all the little cards, drawings and notes he wrote while we were dating, and I still have
368. For the roses he would make at his desk and put on mine.
369. For him not being angry when I called to tell him I quit my job
370. Each day that we have been together, and God watching us when we are not
371. That I still look for him to come home
372. His support and comfort when my father was dying.
373. His still being jealous of our time together
374. His snoring at night
375. His pile of laundry by his bed each morning
376. Not remember what life was like without him .... and not wanting to...


..........

This year for our anniversary gift to eachother, we are taking Memorial Day weekend, heading off to a cabin by a lake for fishing, hiking and just enjoying life with eachother.

Father God, sometimes it is easy to become so "busy" with life that we forget to be grateful for those You have placed in our lives, I pray LORD GOD that you will keep our hearts loving eachother when we are not so lovable, that you will keep us faithful to eachother in body and in mind, that YOU keep a hedge of protection around us that all that is going onto in this world will not come into our home. Thank you Father for my husband and my family.