An Open Birthday Card To My Wife

I was living in Jackson Mississippi (Don’t worry, the story gets happier.) I was teaching high-school. (no really, I was!) After a few days of being bored and admittedly a bit lonely on summer vacation, I did what I rarely ever did. I “IM’d” someone I barely knew. (You see kids AOL was an Internet…. Oh nevermind, ask your parents.) I had previously met this person at the church I was attending in South Jackson but to say we were friends would drastically overstate our familiarity. You see, she had a boyfriend at the time of our first introductions. So one boring late night I clicked on her screen name and said the profound words that would kick it all off. “Hi.” With the click of an ‘enter’ key and the iconic “Boo-da-luh” sound, I began what I did not know would be a lifelong relationship. We talked online for hours that night covering the basics of the “getting to know you’s” and stumbled over a common interest: photography. This lead to our first date spending the day taking pictures. So we actually have our first date thoroughly documented. Who gets to say that?
Unfortunately, we were only allowed to date for about a month before we were interrupted by much bigger plans than mine. A few days into our blossoming friendship she informed she she was about to go to Africa for about two years. “Well of course you are!” I thought. You see, by this time I had already realized that this was much more than something to occupy my idle days of summer. It was a mere couple weeks later I told her “OK, go to Mali. When you get back, I’ll be here and I’ll ask you to marry me.” I did wait two years. It was long. She had malaria twice. I paid a sports car’s amount for my phone bill. We counted the days. I mailed boxes of American junk food. The Simpsons made a movie! Barack Obama became president. I moved back to Memphis. Life slowly went on. Finally the time came for her return home. We had decided since she was to have a layover in Paris anyway, we would meet there and stay a while in Paris and London. It was amazing. We were engaged on the top of a rainy, chilly Eiffel Tower. We were married the following May, got a dog the following August and I can truly say I am completely happy and beyond content with the choice I made for a lifelong partner. I know not everyone can say that. Not everyone can honestly say “No regrets.” I can. I absolutely can. In three and a half years I have come to understand just how good I got it. I truly feel sorry for people that don’t have what I have. She loves me more than I could ever deserve. She “gets me” more than anyone ever has. She puts up with me with more patience than anyone has ever shown. It really is ridiculous that this amazing person with such talent, intelligence, integrity and beauty wants to spend these few precious years we are given on this side of eternity with me. I’ll take it.