Despite so many hard things that I have been writing about, I also write about the incredible blessings in my life. None have been more significant than meeting, loving and marrying Les. So many of you know him but maybe not the real him. Tomorrow is our 17th wedding anniversary. Seventeen, wow, I remember when I heard that number and thought that was forever but now I want every single year we can have. Because now, more than when we fell in love, I know what I have.

We first met in college when he was engaged to the roomie of a classmate in nursing school. My parents had struggled to pay for college and I knew that it was my ticket to independence, to a new life. We all graduated and I didn't even really know him but he and I were both in Louise's wedding. I had just broken my second engagement and he did not marry her. So, we knew what we DIDN'T want. By the end of the wedding and throwing birdseed, I knew I wanted to be with him. Who knew if it would be permanent but there was a sweetness and a trust that came from the first.

Now, we have had years of day to day life building on that first trust. I did not come from a trusting environment but he did. We live to give that trust to our girls but that would not have happened without him.

I am who I am, who I have grown to be because of the gentle support and yes, the gentle boundries set by this man.

Noone succeeds without support. Once as a growth excercise we were asked to develop "word pictures" to tell each other the significance of the other in our lives. The key is to use an analogy that is close to your partners heart. Of course I used cooking, so here is mine.

"You know when you bake and you pull out all your ingredients and set the eggs on the counter so they can come to room temperature? Well, sometimes they roll around clicking into the appliances and bowls, cracking and risking breaking open before they can be used. So, you reach up and pull down a papertowel and put it in a bowl and place the eggs gently inside to protect them till they are needed...."

Les is my bowl of papertowels. When I feel like I am rolling around aimlessly and chipping against the hard things, I know he protects me. He keeps me whole and allow me to be used for my purpose.

Now, we look forward to the next seventeen. Mmmm, life is sweet.