Dear Mark,

Today we get to celebrate you. Lucky us! I think back on all the provisions God had to make to bring your life together with mine. He sure is faithful. And good at soul matching.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and while I create my morning coffee, I look out the window to see all your hard work of redeeming the land, our red barn tucked to the side, and the path that leads to my parent’s house. I look over to the kitchen table we designed together in Africa, and see our five rainbow children circled around it eating breakfast and scribbling in school books. And I think Is this for real? Is this my life?

“Cause I love it! It’s not perfect. But it’s perfect for us.

Today I celebrate how brave you are. You tackle big ideas and projects with confidence, with knowledge and ability. You make everything around us work.

Today I celebrate your commitment. To work and home and family. Somehow you manage to give your time and energy to these loves of yours with such devotion and balance that we all feel like we’re your favorite. But of course I am (wink wink).

Today I celebrate your heritage. Of family and history. The way different ethnicities were woven into who you are and then reborn into the story God would write for us.

Today I celebrate your faith in God. And how it shapes the way you live and work and parent and love. You make yourself available to change and grow. And I love that about you.

Today I celebrate your courage. To live life different. To move to Africa. To switch careers. To father the fatherless. To marry into the Gresham family haha.

Your life makes my life rich with love and purpose. And so I thank God for creating you, and shaping you into his likeness all these 38 years. And I thank him for the gift of our friendship and covenant of love that makes way for this beautiful life we’re sharing together.

I love you,

Lori Darlin’