My Man

This is my man 37 years ago on our Wedding Day. He caught my eye when he first spoke at our church my sophomore year of college. I heard him speak and that night prayed, “Lord, I’d like to marry a man like that”.

A year later he came to our church as the youth minister and the rest is history. One day I had to admit to God– I never thought HE would give me THAT man.

Since I married Terry, life has never been boring! We have always had something on the calendar – a dream to pursue – and vision for the future.

I used to marvel at the way God chose to make all the pieces fit in our relationship -- in areas I lacked, he was strong. It’s no secret he hates numbers – and that seems to be one of my stronger areas – He’s big picture person /I’m analytical – He’s philosophical /I’m pragmatic– however, we do have our areas of commonality, also. We share a passion for ministry, wanting to encourage people in their spiritual walk and we love to mentor couples together. . . we both love children and wanted to be parents for the longest time. . . now we’re going to do the grandparent thing together with twins!!!!

We both had parents with a disabling disease, with the other spouse being the caregiver. Terry helped me to understand my Dad’s muscular dystrophy much more completely.

He was the reason things worked so well in our household when we cared for my mother. . . getting up every two hours to turn her from side to side to keep her from getting bed sores. He would check to make certain she was alright and just wanted her to know someone would be coming into her room that often. By bedtime I was exhausted -- he'd take over and not go to bed until after the first turn.

He has this optimism and objectivity when I’m faced with a test or trial – that it’s going to work out – and it’s not worth all the "flap" until we see how things work out. He always helps me see that there are two sides to every situation.

No place was too remote for us to go to. He went to India five times, I went with him three of those (Jokingly he says that when they started taking their wives -- they didn't have to live out in the huts any longer.) He could navigate us through all kinds of airports, train stations and into little villages, finding us a place to stay, creating a temporary home for 2-3 weeks before we moved on to set up the next preacher training school.

One year for our anniversary Terry recorded a favorite song that we used to love to sing back in the 70’s when we first got married and were trekking around the world, “Please Come to Boston”. We’d get in our little Dodge Charger – head off for some distant destination (my man has always loved a road trip) – hear the song on the radio and sing to our heart’s content.
I’d have to say the song I’d pick for him is “Wind Beneath My Wings”. Terry’s always been my biggest encourager. As a young wife and mother, having a lot of self-doubts – he always made me believe I could do anything. He’s helped me develop certain gifts and talents. He loves me dearly – what more could a woman want???

Happy Anniversary --Love YOU, Babe!