"We've come a long way ... And, baby ... You know I hope and I pray ... That you believe me ... When I say this love will never fade away"

~Ray LaMontagne "You Are The Best Thing"

It's hard for me to even imagine what my life would look like without Jeff. He is absolutely THE perfect match for me. Our personalities, our outlooks, our viewpoints, our dispositions, our goals ... all mesh so well. I'm not really sure how we got so lucky, and yet at the same time, so many things had to go wrong for us to meet. And we know now those things had to happen. Does that make sense?

Several events that seemed to be devastating at the time, created the situation for us to meet. Kinda funny how God lines things up like that. :)

Jeff should have been engaged and planning his wedding. He should have been completing his college internship at the high school across town. We shouldn't have had any reason to see each other and start talking. But things happened. Life and craziness and deadlines and emotions happened. And then we happened.

And 23 years later, we're still here. We're still deeply in love. We're still best friends. We're still the ones who want to hang out, and travel, and struggle, and celebrate together. And it's a crazy beautiful thing. And I'm thankful for it every single day.

It's not that we just float through life blissfully happy. That's not real life. But, we do, almost without thinking, try to make the other person happy every chance we get. That doesn't mean buying extravagant gifts or planning trips around the world. It's the little things. It's putting someone's needs or wants first, and seeing them smile because of it. We both do this and we feel it. It's that "my heart is going to burst with happiness" feeling. It's kinda my favorite.

We started talking on the phone (I still remember the butterflies in my stomach when I'd hear his voice) 23 years ago this month. Twenty-three years of feeling that someone has your back ... that someone wants you to be happy above all else ... that someone really likes talking and laughing and crying and just BEING with you.

I just can't imagine a better feeling.

And he creates that feeling for me ... and that is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Love (and love and love) more,

Dana