To a Wonderful Guy

Tomorrow, may 21st, it will be 16 years since Ken and I got married. He is in our new home in Brisbane this week. It is always difficult having a special day apart from each other. I guess we're just used to it, with all his travel over the years, but I still would rather be on the same continent - call me sentimental. We actually met on May 21st at my friend Karen Long's surprise birthday party. We were both helping put it together. I actually met Zack first- he was hanging out down the hall with Karen's kids- Dallas and Nicole. When I first met him, he was sitting in the hallway next to an air conditioner vent. He had a balloon and was holding it in front of the vent and then letting go and watching how it went - voomp - up to the vent and stuck there. We talked a bit about air flow and suction. Then I showed him how you could take a balloon and rub it on your head and make your hair stand on end - he thought that was pretty cool - I do too. I thought, "What a smart and cute kid!" Later on, I found out that Ken was a single dad and that Zack was his son. I was very impressed. I think being a good single parent is one of the hardest things in the world. This man had a bright, funny, well-behaved son and obviously had a close relationship with him. He also knew how to care for a car, a home, a career, his health - and he could cook. And he has beautiful blue/green/gray/depends on the mood eyes. And he liked Monty Python, good wine, jazz - he was the whole package.

So I made the second smartest decision of my life, the first was accepting Christ, and said "yes" when he asked me to marry him. We set the date for the 21st of May so that we could say we were married on the day we met. We were hopelessly corny even back then. It was so great to meet a guy that I could make a joke or dry comment around and he not only got it, but could elaborate on it and be heading in the right direction with it. He understood my obscure movie quotes. And most spooky of all, he would answer what I was thinking of asking right before I would ask it. Or say the same thing, I was about to say, even with the same wording. After all my failings in life, God saw fit to give me an awesome gift of a mate chosen just for me.

I'm so blessed to be with him in life. I'm so blessed that I'm Ariel's mom and that I got to be Zack's mom. What are the odds, really, that I would have gotten to be Zack's mom? Not that there weren't times when Zack was a teenager that 'bless' would have seemed to be a stretch - we were too much alike and butted heads as a result. Plus I had this thing about being his parent and not his buddy while he was growing up. I'm glad though, because it enabled me to make good parenting decisions because I wasn't trying to make Zack think I was cool, but to help him make good choices in life. Also, later on, it did enable us to be friends, once the basic parenting stuff was complete. And he was my son and my friend. And I miss him every day. But thanks to God's grace, I still have Ariel, my wonderful daughter, and Ken, my custom built soul mate.

When we were dating, the first movie we took Zack to with us was, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" We sat there in the theater, with him in between us, and he became our little Roger. We also got our family nicknames from that movie. Ken is Honey Bunny, I'm Snuggle Bunny and Zack was Sonny Bunny. And when Ariel came along, she was Baby Bunny. I was also Mommy Bunny and Ken was Daddy Bunny. My brother Larry was, for a while, Uncle Wiggly. Some of you may remember the old board game, "Uncle Wiggly" about this rabbit in a waistcoat. Well, Zack had two uncle Larry's, one on my side, one on Ken's, so it was confusing for him. Once, Zack accidentally called my brother Uncle Bunny and Larry said, "Uncle Wiggly to you" and it stuck. At some point when Zack was in his early teens, Larry said, "Ok, you can just call me Larry now." But he was always Uncle Wiggly to Zack.

Today is Friday here, but Saturday over in Australia. So, to MFHB, I love you, I wish you were here, or I there and I'm so thankful that we met all those years ago and that you took me to the beach in Galveston and, under the moonlit fall night, asked me that amazing question that changed our lives forever. I love you. I miss you. I look forward to our new life together.

Forever your SB