This post is in honor of Dave, my husband.

I cannot tell you what a trooper Dave has been through all this. Going through all the testing made him go through some unpleasant things. But he did it all without a word of complaint.

I have 32 notebooks that I call “my journals”. I started the first one when I was 15. Looking back through them one day this week, I came across something I wrote on February 16, 2006, about 3 weeks after I met Dave for the first time.

I wrote: “We had our usual Thursday night with Josh, Angele, Hannah and Jonah. Wesley & his roommate Dave have been coming every week as well now. It’s good to have them here too. Dave is a good kid. I sorta wish he was a little older. I think he’s only 21. I’m glad he & Wesley are able to live together. Dave loves Pretinha [my dog]. He calls her “Blackie” since he can’t say Pretinha I guess.”

Little did I know in 8 months from writing that I would be engaged to that “kid”! I laugh at my words then.

God has blessed me beyond what I thought possible with Dave. And I am grateful that on a road where many couples grow apart, we have only grown closer to our God and to each other.

Dave, I am blessed beyond measure to be your wife. Thank you for all you have done and will still do so we can one day be parents.

I love you!

- Elaine