August 6, 1994 - August 6, 2009

1 Corinthians 13

Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Happy 15th anniversary to a man who has loved me, forgiven me, put up with me, cried with me, rejoiced with me, took care of me, sympathized with me, and rolled his eyes at me.
To a man who has shared my life, my fears, my bed and my weirdness.
He cried every time one of our children was born. He turned to stone when he heard the autism diagnosis. We've lived through my parents living with us, then us living with them, and then both his mom and sister moving in with us.
I've given birth in front of him, cried in front of him, thrown up in front of him. I've seen him cry, seen him thrown up, and I took care of him through appendicitis and five kidney stones and really gross gastric reflux.
He is simply my better half.
Happy Anniversary, Mr. R. I love you.