xviii

Hello Maresi,

So today is your thirty-#$%rd birthday. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you how special you are to me and how much joy you bring to my life. Words cannot fully express the happiness I feel when I think about our marriage and the family we have. But I want you to know, you are my one true love and I will love you forever.

I will never forgot when I saw you for the first time as you were loading the back of your friend Katie’s green VW. I am glad you keep finding reasons to "do rounds" through the dorm hall I was staying in during my lunch hour thus allowing me to offer you a sandwich and eventually ask you on a date.

I can hardly believe that summer was 12 ½ years ago. I cannot get over all the joy, happiness, tears, and laughs we have experienced and shared together. And thru it all my love for you continues to grow and increase exponentially. Every day I think I could not possibly love you anymore than I already do, but I always seem to fall in love with you a little more each and every day. Every day you never cease to amaze me, bring a smile to my face, or warm my heart. There is something in the way you laugh, smile at me, or act silly with our children that causes an indescribable sense of joy in my heart. I could not think of a more caring, loving, beautiful, compassionate, and wonderful woman to spend my life with.

You are so important to me and I owe so much of who I am to you being in my life. Thank you for loving me and being a part of my life.

Love,

Timon