How?

How do you say "I love you" to someone like Justin, and not have it sound trite? We speak it so often. There is nothing I could say that would accurately capture just what I'm trying to say...it's more than words. It's more than feelings. It's something bigger, stronger, deeper, more gentle, more meaningful, more...well, just more.

The first time I saw him, I leaned over to my roommate and said, "now that's the kind of guy I want to marry". I guess if you want something bad enough...

then

now :)

So, here we are 8 1/2 years later. This is definitely NOT where I would ever have imagined us being--on opposite sides of the world. Would I change it? No. Absolutely not.

I watch him as he navigates through this experience that is completely foreign to him. I'm amazed as he, somehow, continues to lift & support his family from so far away, and I'm touched as I see him serving & loving total strangers. I see him turning outside of himself to make the most of a difficult situation...it makes me love him more. I see in him, more each day, the man I knew he would become...the man God told me he would become. I know he needs this experience. I know we need this experience.

So...these are the images that show best what it is I'm trying to say. When I look at them, they fill me with what it is I feel for him. I guess it's true--a picture's worth...

Happy Valentine's Day!

good things...

1. Justin
2. loving Justin
3. being loved by Justin