The Last December Birthday

As I sit here typing this post it is the late evening of Jeremy's 40th birthday. I promise to also write about Christmas but that will be in another post this week. Tonight, I dedicate this post to my husband. He is my sweetheart and partner in everything. 

Earlier this month Jeremy and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary.  Yes, we were young when we married. We laugh at how much we have grown up together. We dated for six years before we married. I was just a month and a half shy of my 21st birthday. The day we married was a very cold day. The high that day was only 32 degrees and the low was 14 degrees. It was very cold!!! I remember the weather that day very well.

Today we celebrated Jeremy's fortieth birthday........just the seven of us. What an honor to see yet another birthday come for him. I admit that I am a little jealous of his very young outward appearance. I cannot tell you how many times people express how young he looks. I am very happy to share that the gray hair has made an appearance on Jeremy's head! Unfortunately, they are hard to see given his hair color.

There are so many things about Jeremy that people outside of our home probably would not believe. Jeremy is such a comedian. He honestly  can make us all laugh hysterically just by the way he tells a story. 

Just tonight he shared with me an "incident" that happened to him at church this morning. Keep reading to follow that story! I stayed home from church with a sick Mariah. He usually leaves around 6am. Since there was no early church service or Sunday School, he didn't leave until 8am. He was dressed in his usual Sunday attire of a suit, neatly pressed shirt by yours truly, and a necktie. 

Sundays for Jeremy are very chaotic. He has a lot of responsibility that most people do not even realize. In the midst of Jeremy running back and forth from the balcony sound booth to his basement office/television production room he had an "incident". Of course, he did not share this with me until mid-afternoon today. The story is that he tripped (he believes his foot either caught on the carpet on the very top step or just slipped on the carpet) and he fell the whole way down the staircase. I knew he was okay as he was standing right in front of me. As he continued the story, I laughed (a lot) out loud along with Micah. Jeremy's iPad went flying and so did he....did I mention......the entire way down the huge staircase! He did hurt his left hand. It is swollen, black and blue, and as he opened a gift tonight he let out a little "ouch"! In the midst of all of this, he still can laugh! 

We enjoyed some time together as a family. Everyone is tired but we love birthdays! We sang to Jeremy, had some cake, and Jeremy opened his gifts from us. I got him some new clothes, nothing all that special. His office is a little cold in the basement so I got him a couple of sweaters. This was after he blurted out just the other morning...."I'm done with these stripes!" I was a little baffled by that statement. I found a couple of sweaters at a great price that did not have any stripes. Evidently, that is now important to Jeremy. Who knew?

Jeremy truly has a heart of gold. He treats me so well and is an awesome dad. Jeremy definitely is the spiritual leader in our home. He is up every single morning at 6am (or before) and comes downstairs to read his Bible and pray. He sets the bar pretty high for me! I guess what I am saying is, he makes me want to be a better person.

Jeremy then comes upstairs and gets Mariah out of bed and gets breakfast for her. This is his choice and he wants to be able to spend some time with just her as she still struggles with adjustments. He has the joy of shoving the spoonful of medication mixed in applesauce into her mouth! She can make that a touch difficult. Then he gets ready for work and is gone around 8am. 

His days are long, and difficult. Many people at church do not realize he is on staff. Jeremy produces and directs the television broadcast of our church's Sunday morning service. He also webstreams the church services for the Sunday early service, late service, evening service, and Wednesday evening service. He runs the church's Southern Gospel radio station. He oversees the church's television station. He edits the Sunday morning service, produces commercials, builds commercials and a ton of other things. 

It was Jeremy that actually came to me about the decision to grow our family. Jeremy was so supportive of each pregnancy. For me, that part is very difficult. I end up hospitalized with severe morning sickness. Jeremy was my "go to" person. He would come home from work for lunch and feed the kids when he knew I was so sick. Jeremy is the one that came to me and told me that he thought the Lord was speaking to his heart and that we needed to pray about adopting a little girl from China.

Jeremy has a very slow temper. He is humble. He is tender-hearted. If he knew I was typing about this, he would probably ask me to take it out. But here it goes! A few weeks ago on his way to work/church on Sunday morning at 6am he passed a young woman on the side of the road walking without shoes. He drove past her then turned around and went back. He offered her a ride. She got in the car and it was clear to Jeremy she needed help. She had no shoes on her feet. She said she left them on the side of the road somewhere. 

Jeremy drove her to a homeless shelter and eventually the director came out. The director told Jeremy that she was not welcome there. I guess she had a history. Jeremy was left standing there with this woman who clearly needed help. His heart was conflicted. She needed help but he needed to get to work. He finally decided she needed to go to the hospital ER and someone there could help her. 

This is not to say he is perfect. Because none of us are. If Jeremy would just learn to close a closet door, or bedroom door, or cabinet door I would be very happy. He leaves one potato chip in the bag. He leaves one cracker in the sleeve. He cannot cook....at all! 

But, he is perfect for me! 

Jeremy is humble to a point of believing he is not intelligent. Jeremy is a great provider for us. He is a wonderful father to our kids. I love this man. He was created to be my partner. I owe his wonderful parents a huge debt. They raised him so well. What great examples they were to him. Jeremy's dad has been a faithful pastor to a Baptist church in Kittanning, PA for 32 years! His mom has supported him and has been the church pianist for 32 years. She also teaches Sunday school, taught at their Christian school, organized countless church functions, helps council women and couples, and is a wonderful help meet for Jeremy's father.

So, forgoing a Christmas posting (for now), I wanted to wish my sweet husband a very Happy Fortieth Birthday! I love you like crazy!!!!!

And so does this new little one!