A Very Special Anniversary

March 17, 2007. A date that I will never forget, in more ways than one. Fourteen years ago today, I met the woman that would prove to be the love of my life, the woman of my dreams, and the mother of my children. It was a semi-blind date, and it was one of the best nights of my life.

I call it a semi-blind date because we met online a few weeks earlier, through E-Harmony. Yes, it works. I was living in Barrie, Ontario, and I had signed up at the end of February, and was matched with 31 women from further than I'd expected (one of them was in Pennsylvania). I sent out feelers to all 31, and received three replies. One was in Orillia, half an hour from Barrie; one was the aformentioned Pennsylvanian; and the third was from a town called Wallaceburg, a town I had to look up on a map because I'd never heard of it before.

It didn't take us long to realize that we had found someone special. We racked up eighty hours on the phone in two weeks, and we arranged to meet on St. Patrick's Day in Hamilton, at her friend's house. By then, I already knew that she was the woman I would marry; I'd already known it for a week.

We met, and we had a really great time. I met her four-year-old son, Ashton, and gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine book as a gift. We went to Kelsey's for dinner, and then to see Music & Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It's a great movie, although my view of it might be a bit biased considering the evening in general.

I dropped her off at her friend's house afterward, and ended up driving home at about two in the morning. I was on Cloud Nine the whole way home. She obviously agreed that things went well, and we made arrangements to visit each other even though we lived nearly four hours apart. They say long-distance relationships never work out, so we arranged to change that, too; three months later, I packed up and moved to Wallaceburg after proposing to her at the piano recital. And that's a story for another time.

We were married two years later; it was supposed to be one year, but actions have consequences, and our consequence is now twelve years old. She didn't want to be trying on wedding dresses when she was six months pregnant, so we put the wedding off and accepted the scolding from our priest. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

So, on this awesome and wonderful anniversary, I want to thank the most amazing, beautiful, special, fantastic woman I've ever known or ever will know, for fourteen years that weren't always highs, but were rarely lows. I wouldn't trade these last fourteen years for anything; I'm a better man because of her, and she's always supported me even when I did crazy things like sell life insurance or write books. She's a great cook, a fantastic mother, and a wonderful wife, with a tremendous faith in God and the most caring heart I've ever seen. My life is immeasurably better with her in it.

Happy Anniversary, Honey Bunny. I hope we celebrate a lot more together.