Loving Memories on our 12th Anniversary

My darling Carol,

As we celebrate twelve loving years of marriage today, I wanted to share some of my favorite special memories of our lives together over the past 12 years and the 2 years before we were married.

Here are just a few of the fun and special moments that come to mind that I wanted to share with you. I love you very much and eagerly look forward to building a lifetime of even more fun times and memories in the years ahead.

Love Always,
Jim

Some of my favorite memories together...

• Chatting online on AOL and talking on the phone in the wee hours of the morning when we met online.

• Getting your picture in the mail at my old apartment in Charleston and being blown away.

• The first time we held hands while walking at the festival in Lima.

• Seeing “The Net” as our first movie.

• Cooking you dinner for the first time (and almost making you sick in the process).

• Driving though the cornfields across Ohio as we were visiting each other and falling in love.

• Watching you courageously discern your call to ministry and leave a comfortable life to follow God’s call.

• Getting to know Stimpy and going from her hissing at me to her being my fat cat buddy in Dunbar.

• Rooting for Michigan and learning how despicable Ohio State is.

• My joy when you accepted my proposal of marriage.

• My breath being taken away as you walked down the aisle and became my wife.

• Our first dance as husband and wife and the fun intros for the wedding party at the reception.

• Our honeymoon cruise with fun in the sun, exploring the rain forest, finding bargains, seeing the sights of the Caribbean, snorkeling and spending some time on a certain special beach in Santo Domingo.

• Watching you grow as a minister and becoming a strong worship leader, preacher, and caring pastor.

• Finding out you were pregnant!

• Walking in the cold and snow on Christmas eve trying to see if Jake was going to be born early.

• Hearing Jake’s heartbeat for the first time and feeling him kick.

• Holding your hand when Jake was born and again when Jonah joined our family a few years later.

• Watching the anesthesiologist put you to sleep for “just a bit” after you did so great delivering Jake.

• Handing Jake to you and hearing him say “mum, mum, mum…” for his first words on his first day!

• Your patience, care and love while I was going through a rough time when Time Out closed.

• Helping me find a new great job with TEAM for WV Children.

• Our first trip to Disney World with Jake and seeing the magic in his eyes when Mickey waved at him.

• Our initial joy followed by sadness at the loss of a new life when we endured a miscarriage together.

• Finding out you were pregnant again with Jonah!

• Our trip to San Diego doing everything we could during a magical vacation – even singing “Great Balls of Fire” at the piano like Goose and Maverick.

• How much you were a trooper while we waited in line forever at Chicago O'Hare Airport and got stuck in Chicago for 2 days.

• Giving birth to Jonah and nurturing his great energy, joy and enthusiasm.

• Staying faithful and loving me even when things have seemed rocky.

• Making each of our three houses into a home.

• Going on vacations and your always accommodating my desire to explore and find adventures along the way.

• Building sand castles with Jonah on the beach.

• Helping me see when I was blind in each of my eyes.

• Nursing me back to health and being by my side as I’ve endured a host of medical challenges in the past couple of years.

• Teaching Jake & Jonah and me about unconditional love through your words and actions.

Happy Anniversary! I love you very much!