This is my vow

I promise to love you, honour you and protect you for rest of my life. You are the missing piece to my puzzle. Without you I’m incomplete.

I offer you this ring as a token of my love and a symbol of our commitment to each other – Forever and unending.

These are the vows Jennifer and I spoke to each other in the Hamilton Gardens, on Friday August 17, 2007. Remember everything about that day so clearly. The weeks leading up to it are a little blurry, I have to admit, but the day itself is clearly etched into my memory.

I remember waking up kissing Jennifer goodbye as she headed out to door to one of our friends houses, where my sister would help her get ready. I remember my groomsmen, Hayden Sanders and Paul Bowman coming to my flat. All three of us dressed in black dress clothes and and tie. I remember feeling VERY relaxed all morning, only to start sweating bullets as the minutes counted down. I remember REALLY sweating when Jennifer showed up some 20 minutes late! HA!

I remember seeing her walk in from the back of greenhouse and feeling my knees buckle. I remember feeling a wave of emotion rush over me. There she was. The woman I’d been waiting my entire life for. The woman who loved me as I was and as I am. The woman who would become the mother of my children. I remember feeling like things had come full circle and even though things were for far from certain from an immigration stand point, somehow none of that seemed to matter. All that mattered was that moment.

I remember taking her hand and just looking at her. She was beautiful. In that moment and every moment since, I was captivated by how beautiful she was. As she gazed back at me I felt at peace, because she loved me and it amazes me constantly that she still does.

This August marks our fifth wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years. So much has happened in that time, it doesn’t seem like that could all fit in just five years. We made the cross-continental move to Kentucky. We’ve had two children, Lilyana Huia, who will be four in June and Hayden Anahera who turned one in March. I have been through something like six different “long term” contracts, before finally landing my current contract. We have been living in our own place for a little over two years, after spending almost two years bouncing back and forth between Jennifer’s parents. There has been so much happenings, it’s hard to keep track of it all.

Yet, after all of that, I can remember all the details of that single day in August, 2007. In the moments when things are tough, I look back to that day and those words specifically. In an age where 50% of marriages fail, I don’t want to become a statistic. I am trying to learn how to love my wife the way she needs to be loved. I am trying to learn how to be the man she fell in love with all over again. I am trying to learn to be the father my girls deserve and girls deserve a loving father, because their father’s lay down the blueprint for how they view themselves and how they want to be loved. I only hope the blueprint they follow is a good one.

Jennifer. I promise to love you, honor you and protect you for the rest of my life. You are the missing piece to my puzzle. Without you, I’m incomplete.

I offer this ring as a token of our love and a symbol of our commitment – Forever and unending.

I love you, my sweetheart!


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