Happy Birthday, Geekboy

My husband's birthday is today. I can't imagine my life without him. Ours was a whirlwind romance. We got married less than six months after our first email on an online dating site. It would have been sooner but we waited for my brother to get home from his mission. (We married two days later - which was convenient for the family, even though it made a busy weekend with a wedding Friday, a reception Saturday and a mission homecoming Sunday.)

When I married him, I thought ours was the deepest most eternal love that I could imagine. Twelve years later I realize how incredibly naive I was. We have gone through so much together, and never have I felt that he wasn't completely in my corner. He is the one who encouraged me to go to graduate school. He is the one who prodded me to apply to teach at the university. He sacrificed his own comfort to let me commute to another state for a job I wanted. He held my hand while I spoke through my tears at our son's funeral. He held my hand while I labored to bring Cooper into the world. He could have an easier life with a wife who didn't suffer from fibro and depression, but he counts it an honor to be my protector and best friend. I am the most blessed woman in the world to be his wife.

When I was little I remember looking up at the stars and seeing what I thought was the immensity of space arrayed before my eyes. And then I saw the Milky Way and realized that the iridescent band of light was millions and millions more stars that couldn't be distinguished from each other. I realized how much bigger space was than I had previously understood. And then I saw photos of galaxies taken by space telescopes, and realized that what I had been seeing wasn't just stars, but entire other galaxies, with their millions and millions of stars. Beyond our ability to see, beyond our ability to understand, the universe keeps expanding, and right now I feel like that is our love. It's so much bigger than it was 12 years ago, but I realize I am just at the start of something that will just keep getting bigger and bigger as we continue our life together. I feel like I am staring into the immensities of space when I am looking at him, and unlike the real world, it all revolves around us.

I love you.