Happy Anniversary!

 

 Who could foresee how quickly 22 years would fly by? It feels like just a short time ago, and yet it also feels like an entire lifetime has passed. I suppose it really has been a lifetime. We’ve had babies and watched them grow into young adults. We went from a little Mazda pick-up to a more practical little car, then a series of mini-vans, and now we have a driveway full of vehicles. We have weathered the ups and downs of being a single-income household, career changes, unemployment, being a two-income household, and becoming self-employed. We have survived a lifetime of springs and summers for the sake of baseball, although the back yard has suffered irreparable damage, I’m afraid. Kane learned to enjoy hockey, because our first-born developed a passion for the game. We have survived loss and heartache. We have endless unfinished projects with more always in the works. Our house will never be in Good Housekeeping magazine, but it will always be home. We aren’t exactly the same people who exchanged vows 22 years ago, but I’d like to believe that, for the most part, we are better.

There is a song that has been playing in my head for the past few weeks. As our anniversary has approached, I have found this song to be especially meaningful. It’s an old Amy Grant song, Say Once More:

Let me say once more that I love you,
Let me say one time, maybe two,
That I love the way that you love me,
And I wish I knew more of you.

Let me say once more that I love you,
Let me say one time, maybe two,
That I love the way that you love me,
And I wish I knew more of you.

Tell me that time can’t erase
This look of love on your face.

Let me say once more that I need you,
One more time or just maybe two.
Oh, my life will always be richer
For the time I’ve spent here with you.

Let me say once more that I love you,
Let me say one time, maybe two,
That I love the way that you love me,
And I wish I knew more of you.

Tell me that time won’t erase
The way that my heart sees your face.

I call your name,
You look my way,
It’s clear you trust each word I say.
When life is long and problems come,
You’ll always be my only one.
So now we’re standing face to face,
And with one look your eyes embrace me.
Squeeze away each haunting fear,
And say the words I long to hear.

Tell me that time won’t erase
This look of love.

Oh….

Let me say once more.
I love you.
I do, I do, I do, I do, I do.

Let me say once more that I love you,
Let me say one time, maybe two,
That I love the way that you love me,
And I wish I knew more of you.

Let me say once more that I love you,
One more time or just maybe two,
That I love the way that you love me,
And I want to know more of you.

(I call your name,
You look my way, I love you.
It’s clear you trust each word I say. I do….
When life is long and problems come,
You’ll always be my only one.
So now we’re standing face to face, Oh, I need you.
And with one look your eyes embrace me. I want you.
Squeeze away each haunting fear, More and more and more.
And say the words I long to hear.)