to my husband.

My love,

Yesterday, I wrote down our love story with the intention of posting it on this blog. I read it, and re-read it again, and then I asked you to read it. You read it and re-read it again, and we decided that it might be better just to keep it to ourselves.

We both know that our love story is not perfect. It is not a fairy tale. Our path to here was full of bumps, twists and turns, and the backdrop of our great love unfolding was marked with some pain, isolation, and frustration. When we take a moment to look all of it - how it all began, and what we endured for that season, well, it was sometimes hard.

  But the so hard was so good because we had found each other, we passionately loved each other, and we dreamed of "making it work" with a certain stubbornness that got us through.

And then there were some really CRAZY things that would happen when we were together - I mean, CRAZY, BEAUTIFUL things... do you remember? Things where we would look at each other and go, WHOA, did that just happen!? Like, that insane rain/hailstorm that yielded to a mist covered lawn and a full rainbow in my old backyard, seeing families of otters down by the river playing happily, shooting stars, sunrises and sunsets... just so many things... Things that made us wonder what all of this was all about...

engagement day!

While we sat up in the bed last night, snuggled up next to each other, your head on my shoulder, looking at each other in the mirror across the room talking about how we got to this place, there is no doubt that it was all worth it. I wouldn't change any of it, because now I have you. This is what we wanted. This is where we dreamed we'd be. We've got it now.

Your vivid recurring dreams as a young man of the blonde haired woman that you had to cross a fiery chasm to get to means so much more now, doesn't it?

Yes there are times that we both wish that we hadn't been so stupid and foolish in our younger days... we know now that we crossed paths so many times, and if our eyes had been open to one another, maybe our path to each other might not have been so hard. But we know also that we weren't ready then... too stupid, too foolish, we might have squandered something so precious, something we now know, only because of the heartbreak that we individually experienced, was not something to treat lightly. A love like this, most people only dream of. We have it. It's what got us through.

I'll never forget the day that hope arrived for us. When your new boss at your new job began to share his own story of love and marriage, and how it mirrored ours up to that point. I'll never forget the phone call - you from work on your lunch break to me at work on my lunch break, you telling me about the path he'd walked, and how it encouraged you that we could do the same... Finally, it seemed too that this could really work. We could be together. It would just take perseverance and love. Sweet love.

Something we're not short on.

Baby, to say that I love you doesn't say enough these days...


You are my life.
You are the man who holds me up, and brings me back to life.
You scale all my walls and bring them down.
You can make me crack a smile when all I want to do is fight that very thing.
You love our children better than I ever could.
You exhaust the best of yourself trying to make our oldest into a man.
I love to bury my face in the crook of your neck and smell you... it is such a comfort to me.
I love how you make everyone feel safe, welcome and warm.
I love your corny jokes and the crickets that usually follow.
I love how gentle, kind, and tender you are.
I love your smile, your wrinkly eyes, and your salt and pepper scruff.
I love the way you wrap your flowers before you give them to me.
I love your love letters - they are treasures to me.
I love your soft spot for sappy love stories.
I love that you try.
I love your earlobes and thinking about how long they will be one day when you're old. I love that I will be there to see that, God willing.
I love our life together.
 I love dreaming with you, and I cannot wait until we find ourselves on top of mountains again, in wide fields, free and alive... and for now, you're my partner and my friend... my BEST friend, through the day to day, and I couldn't be more content than I am now. I. love. you.

Love Brooke
xoxoxoxoxo

PS: I can't wait to hang out tonight! :o)