Celebrating 34 Years
Hey My Friends!!! Hope your weekend is going well. Christmas is getting very close. Hope you are getting ready for a very special day next weekend. I am getting ready for a very special day, today!
Today is Natalie and I’s, 34th wedding anniversary!!!! I have always been very grateful and excited about our wedding anniversary and honestly did not think I would be around for 34. I am so grateful for that and want to share a few things and let my wife know through this process how much she is loved by me.
The marriage we have shared for the last 34 years continues to teach me about the value and importance of marriage. It can be challenging some days but at the end of the each day it is one of the greatest blessings I have ever experienced.
Early in our marriage I told Natalie, “You have to love me and stick with me until our 50th wedding anniversary, then you can do what ever you want.” I had always planned on 50 years of marriage with my beautiful wife. I really never thought I would get some cancer and without a miracle from God, be gone before 50 years of marriage. There are many things in this life that happen outside of our plans.
I remember meeting Natalie in college. We started a friendship that lasted for many months. She was dating a friend of mine and our relationship never started as a dating relationship. We had spent the summer in a couple of summer school classes and hanging out, doing school work and talking a lot about life. By the end of the summer, I told Natalie we needed to stop hanging out. I was getting more and more interested in her and I did not want to mess-up her relationship with the man she was dating. A day or two later she shared with me that she had broken up with the guy she had been dating. I gave them a month or two to work through that once he got back to school. When I realized it was over, we started dating. I have been “dating” Natalie ever sense.
There are so many ways Natalie and I are very different. The ways we are the same have been key to a wonderful marriage life. We love the Lord, we love each other, our children and have honestly enjoyed doing life together.
Natalie has been an amazing teacher and Principle. My respect for her work in education has grown year after year. When I hear her speak to her teachers, students and parents of those students I am amazed. Being a Principle in todays culture is very challenging, and very important. She loves and values the kids she cares for and I continue to be amazed at her courage to lead.
I have always been amazed at the way she has loved and parented our 3 children. When those kids were babies and elementary kiddos she parented and loved our kids in some very special ways. That mattered to me and I have been grateful and my love and respect for her continues to grow.
There really are so many ways I could brag on her share the things she has done that make me love her more and more. That has never stopped and continues to grow as we now navigate a very challenging season of our lives.
This process today has been very different. I hate what my brain tumor is doing to our lives. How it is impacting her in some very challenging ways. I fell some responsibility for that and also realize this is nothing I chose or can control.
I can control how I love her and I am trying to do that well. Natalie is the “love of my life.” These days I enjoy, sitting on the couch, eating a meal together and I love taking walks with her. My heart for her swells, when I see her “caring for our grandchildren.” She writes me notes sharing how God is with us and how she loves and cares for me.
Her notes have been amazing. Here is one I got this week that shows how special these notes are to me.
Todd, May your day be filled with reminders of how valued and loved you are. I am grateful for just one more moment, day, year with you by my side. Enjoy this beautiful day. I Love You! Natty
34 years with this women have been amazing. Happy Anniversary Beautiful!!!!! You are loved and of great value.