The BIG ONE

It's happened. I woke up next to my 40 year old husband this morning. Hard to imagine...this man who's been a part of my life since I was 18 years old has hit the big one. At the same time the man on the next pillow over is in no way like the man I made vows with. And the fact that we woke up together is amazing all by itself.

Only through the grace of the God of Jesus Christ are we still married. And only through His grace has my husband been transformed. How many people are lucky enough to live with a miracle? Yet all of us who have been saved by the Lamb are miracles, just not quite as startling in contrast.

For his 30th birthday (which 10 years ago felt like the BIG ONE and now feels like mere childhood) he was treated at his favorite bar by his drinking buddies before stumbling home and passing out sick. I had made his favorite dinner and Juliana, in her baby way, had decorated a Snoopy card with stickers. We ate that dinner, just the two of us.

For his 40th birthday he bought himself the Star Wars Lego ship that Holt "suggested" his daddy would really like. And what Birch wanted more than anything else for us to all go bowling as a family. No bars. No buddies. He wanted just us.

For those that know we went bowling, the two of us, for New Years Eve, let me 'splain. We are not bowlers. The fact that I have been twice in under six weeks is an anomaly of major proportion. But when we went last month, he kept saying how much he thought the kids would enjoy it, so to the lanes we went.

I learned several facts about bowling today.

1. Juliana bowls like a girl. I'm sure I do also, I've just never seen myself bowl. She advances and releases much like I imagine a fairy princess would. If fairy princesses bowled.

2. Holt has confused bowling with baseball. He has quite a sidewinder.

3. A child's natural bowling stance is the "granny", but if you give a four year old the "ball slide", she can beat her mother and both her older siblings. I quite seriously considered borrowing it from her.


4. I bowl much much better with the rails up. I think I will never again bowl without kids, or at least without borrowing someone else's. Notice there is no picture to illustrate this epiphany as all bowling pictures are taken from behind and well, I'm not stupid.

5. I could live to be 100 and never ever beat Birch at bowling. Or anything else that requires the slightest bit of coordination.

6. Bowling should always be enjoyed with Coke (not Pepsi! Please... what is wrong with AMC bowling lanes?) and pizza.


7. I am, indeed, the luckiest woman I know.

Happy Birthday, Old Man!