"Have you read any good emails lately?"
These were the words that made me begin to love this man who I have now been married to seven years today.
Up until then he was the poop-head guy who asked a friend of mine to a wedding and then never called her back. Brooks was safe because I would never fall for him and certainly never agree to go out with him. Didn't he know what an opportunity he missed with her? Didn't I know that God had bigger plans for him (and her too)?
Fast forward to a year later. We begin hanging out some because each of us have close friends who happened to be married to one another. Being really stupid girls that we were, the wife and I were emailing back and forth about life, boys, and Brooks always attaching our emails to one another creating a long string of stupid girl talk. Also being the stupid girls we were, our conversation was not always edifying and certainly not always complementary of Brooks. Somehow, by accident, my friend forwarded this long string of emails to twenty other people... including Brooks. Some read it. He did not. Realizing what it was, he scrolled down, saw his name, and deleted it.
In the meantime, I was sure he would never talk to me again. If roles had been reversed, I would have read the email and never have spoken to him. I remember walking into church and seeing him from the corner of my eye thinking that he hated me and feeling a hard lump of shame in my stomach. I sat down. He came up behind me and said in my ear laughing, "Read any good emails lately?" and then asked to sit with me. I could feel the relief flood into me. Two and a half years later I married him.
I love this man. He is not Jesus. He can't make me whole or fill me up. He sometimes snores (in my ear). But he is the one God intended for me. He is a kind man who knows how to forgive. He loves our sons and Jesus even more. I am so very, very blessed to call him my husband.
Happy Anniversary, Williams. You are still my favorite husband.
