Happy Birthday Ashley!

Tomorrow is my wife Ashley’s 26th birthday. This will be the 5th birthday that she has shared with me since we’ve been married. At this point I should probably tell you something, I love her, I love her, I love her. We have spent 5 amazing years together. We’ve had 3 homes in 2 towns, 2 dogs, bought a new car, and a used van, put 20% down on a home, and had 3 children (well, almost). My life is 100% different than it was 5 years ago and it seems like birthdays are a natural time to reminisce about such things.

About 5 1/2 years ago, before Ashley and I began dating, I wrote a poem about what I envisioned my life to look like about now. It’s worth looking back at and sharing with you…

in 5 years I will be a new person

in 5 years I will have a house
of my own
to roll around on the floor
like a 2 year old with a puppy
and jump up and down on the bed
till someone falls off and bumps their head
without anyone telling me to stop
a whole house as a playground
for my wife and i
to run and chase and hide
and stay up all night
experiencing wild rides

in 5 years I will be married
to the love of my life
to the girl that *will* steal my heart
and take it for captive
too beautiful for me to ever ask for it back
I will celebrate every day with her
and discuss our future
in bed late at night
just before we turn out the lights
we will laugh so hard
at how stupid we will be
when no one is looking
that we will get rug burns
from rolling, belly-up on the carpet
and our eyes will hurt
from staring
and our hands will hurt
from touching
and our heart will hurt
from loving
a please-don’t-ever-stop staring, touching and loving

in 5 years I may just be a dad
I may just be teaching someone to walk
and talk
and eat
and catch
I may just be learning new things
like protecting
and serving
and sacrifice
I may just have someone sleeping in between my wife and i
tucked under my arm in a i-love-the-warmth-you-give sort of hold
and I wouldn’t want it any other way
I may just be kissing a little chubby baby
until my lips are raw
but not enough that I couldn’t still smile

in 5 years things will be better
the valleys will simply be a distant memory
and I will have started my life
a colorful, loving, can’t-wait-to-get-home kind of life
which is something that I can’t have yet
I will lay in my bed at night staring at two little precious faces
sleeping
and just
…smile myself to sleep

in 5 years I’ll be happy

…and I am happy. And Ashley, I love you, have a wonderful birthday.