some 3,287 days ago today, I was privileged enough to watch from the front altar …

there at the First United Methodist Church in Fort Smith Arkansas …

I waited with my father at my side …

there with dear friends standing beside me in support, and family members watching on with amazement …

as Phil Taylor walked his beautiful eldest daughter, and my bride-to-be, down the aisle …

how I ever got to that day …

how I ever convinced her I was was the one …

how anything so wonderful could have happened to me …

it was all by the grace of God, of that I am positive …

it wasn't as simple as "hey, you're hot, wanna go out?" …

no, it was 3 months of rejection …

then 3 months of "moving on" …

and then a phone call one night to ask me how I had done on an exam …

there was the honey mustard chick-fil-a sauce spilled all over the apartment carpet …

there was the Razorback basketball game as a first date (should have been a sign) …

there were trips to the lake, trips snow skiing, and trips to LR to watch Razorback football …

all from a girl, who by her own admission, had never attended a Razorback athletic event …

till she called me one night to ask how I did on an exam …

since that fateful night when Lisa decided to pick up the phone and call me …

I am sure she never imagined her life quite like it is some 11 years later …

I couldn't have imagined the past 11 years w/out her …

she is my best friend, my common sense guru, my financial planner, my lover, my wife, and above all …

she is the mother of my two beautiful daughters …

whatever God feels I did to deserve the last 9 years of marriage I have been able to share with Lisa …

I thank him each and every day …

and Lisa … I don't know why you did, but I thank you too …

for picking up the phone, and calling to see how I had done on that exam …

pretty sure I made an A, but when I answered the phone and you were on the other end …

I probably couldn't have told you what the subject matter was for which I had taken the test …

Lisa, I love you more every day …

I can't believe it has been nine years …

it still seems like yesterday, when you took my breath away as you came down that aisle …

at the First United Methodist Church …

in Fort Smith, Arkansas …

on June 24, 2000 ….

"You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you." — Song of Songs 4:7