Ode to Jaime

I was talking to a friend of mine at work yesterday about love and marriage and kids and all that kinda' stuff, and I've been thinking about our conversation since then. One thing occurs to me, and, if you know me, you know I always say this, but I love my wife. We've been married for over 10 years now (for those of you doing the quick math that means I was 19 and she was 18) and every year I become more grateful for her.

Over the last 3 years I have put her probably through some of the hardest stuff we've ever gone through. 3 years ago, I was working for Bank One (now Chase) one of the largest banks in the U.S. making fairly descent money. Now I'm a student finishing up my undergrad at Ohio State....that is to say broke. But she doesn't complain (unless something happens that just emphasizes how broke we are). The other day she actually said she liked what we have going right now.

Last year we left this really small church (read 18 members) that we'd been attending for like 9 years, which was really hard and painful especially for her. She could've said, "That's it! No more!" but she didn't she stuck it out with me, and I couldn't be happier.

Part of why I love her, is that she is content to stay at home and be with our two kids, Moira and Evie. This means she home schools Moira (she's 7; Evie's 3 so she's in that Pre-school stage), tries to keep the house in some sort of order and cooks our food...she's just great! And she loves it! I tell her all the time, she can get a degree if she wants, go back to school like I did, do something else, but she loves what she's doing now (most of the time, anyway) and just laughs at me.


Also the whole Multicultural feel to our house is all about her. She's befriended a Hindi family with two great kids and a Bengali family with a household of ornery kids and hangs out with them. Can they speak English...a little bit, but Jaime is determined to teach it to them, and they want to learn. She tutors their kids in their homework, makes important English based phone calls for them. She loves them so much, it constantly reminds me how much I need to up the ante in that realm for myself.

Well, I've got to get going now. But here's a toast to my wife Jaime, "Thanks for being around for 10 years and here's to many more!" Sorry for feeling all mushy this morning.