Two Dimes and Nickel for Meggers

Happy Birthday, Meg! Today you turn 25, a quarter of a century. I have started the POI at TBS and thus you will spend most of the day today in our new home in Fredericksburg without me. I'm sure you will receive many Facebook posts and calls today from loved ones and friends, and I'm sure the dogs will have some kisses for you as well! We will celebrate together tonight with cake, but I want to share something I found in our emails from 2018. As you will remember well, two days after returning from our honeymoon I left to spend the summer in Oman. That period of time was very challenging for both of us, as we didn't get the chance to establish our marriage the way we would have hoped. We learned a valuable lesson during that time - that we would never intentionally choose to be away from each other, or the family we would start. That regardless of how short a duty was, we would always move everything so I could come home to you at night. If family truly is a priority we were going to live that way. We have grown so much since that summer, but I wanted to share a little metaphor I sent to you through email, and as cheesy as it sounds, remind you that you are still the bees to my world! I love you and happy twenty-fifth Birthday!

"this may be dumb but i wanted to share it with you because i had it as a thought today. if i am like a world, with thousands of plants acting as the parts of me that give me life, that grow and that nourish. the parts of me that produce fruits, all that is good about me comes from the parts of me that are alive, and their deep roots. from my begginning i have always had roots, but in order for me to grow, and to thrive. in order for my life to spread, the plants in my world to reproduce and for me to become a man I needed something. YOu are like millions of bees coming into my world. you take the best of the plants I have, the best most important aspects that most others dont even see, and you come into every part of my life, the good the bad the secrets the fears and you polinate them, you make me grow, you allow me to produce fruit and to become a world that is green and vibrant. I know that was dumb but i just thought today about how much you have pushed me to be a better man meghan, and how blessed i am to have that. thank you so much for challenging me and caring about even my worst aspects enough to give them life. "