Not sure where the motivation for this post came from today.  It’s not on any anniversary, any birthday, or anything.  It was just on my heart to write about someone that is so important to me and who I am so thankful that God has blessed me with.  That is my wife Amber.  It’s amazing to me, to see the life we have built together from such a young age.  She is my heart and my joy.  She has such a good heart and a humble heart.  What’s even cooler, is that through all of my own junk and faults, this woman loves me without any end, just as I love her and I think we grow in our love for one another with each passing day, even when we get under each other skin, actually that’s when I get under her skin.

So where do I begin.  It was almost 20 years ago, that I was working at my high school job at McDonald’s, in the late fall of 1995.  One afternoon, this cute redhead came walking in and was looking to apply to work there as well.  I remember to this day, the first time I saw her walk in.  We didn’t know each other, but she literally took my breath away.  There was just something about this girl, although at the time I didn’t really know what that was.  A few months later, we went out on our first date with some friends.  The more time we spent together, the more we became inseparable.  Something told me that this was going to be my wife, so at the start of my senior year in the fall of ’96, I proposed to her in the very spot where we first met.  I know McDonald’s is not a place of romance, but that’s where I wanted to do that.  Fast forward to the 10 days after graduation, and we were getting married.  We knew it was what we both wanted and we found safety and comfort with one another.

I look back on those times and then where we are now.  I couldn’t be more blessed to have such a wonderful woman in my life.  She has supported me through everything.  Through all of my years of schooling while also working and supporting our growing family, she has always been there.  Every move I made through my career, she was behind.  When our family endured the loss of my Dad 6 years ago, she was there along side me through it all.  Now coming out of the shadows of brokenness and being reborn in Christ, she has come alive in her own right and you can see the glow in her of the Lord doing a work in her as well.  She has been amazing through my schooling and learning now as we go through a life change in my current studies to help lead others to restoration.  Although we step into the unknown, she still is right there with me.

I sit here writing this as she is in there working on editing pictures for photography sessions she does.  I might also mention that she is a natural and talented photographer.  What’s awesome though, is that she does not do it for the money.  She just loves being able to provide people with family pictures.  If she makes nothing for it, she is perfectly fine with that, because her joy comes when people get to enjoy pictures of their families they can share with others.  I love her heart in that and the joy that comes from providing something to people that is often very unaffordable.

I’m just so proud of my wife and love her with every part of my being.  I felt a need to convey this to you all.  God truly blessed my life when He sent this woman in my world nearly 20 years ago.  Although I’m not always the best at it, I try now everyday to do as Paul said in Ephesians 5:25.  “Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.”  I would give anything for her, including my own life.  I thankful to the Father for her each day and look forward to spending the rest of our days here on this earth loving her.

“I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable.”  – G.K. Chesterton