Another crazy, foolish day shared with you

Dearest Markie 

Today we share our 17th time of celebrating our birthdays on the same day. And while recent circumstances have meant that today will be much more of a subdued and less exciting shared birthday than some of our other more memorable ones (like last year when we had such awesome adventures in Queenstown), I cannot let the moment go past without reflecting on what it means to me to be sharing the day of my birth with you....again.

For a start, it was a crazy, foolish thing we did in the eyes of most, thinking that a Kiwi girl and an English lad who lived half a world apart could make this thing called true love work. But it was right and it was true. And we believed in it enough to make it happen. It wasn’t a walk in the park to make it work and we both made sacrifices, but make it work we did. And we are here to tell the tale.

Now looking back I can see I’d have been crazy foolish NOT to fall for you. I know you might feel funny about me extolling your physical virtues but hey can I help it if I think you’re super sexy - I first loved and married the 30kg heavier version of you and thought I’d hit the jackpot even back then - but you can bet I certainly didn’t complain about the new version of Markie that arrived on the scene a few years later either (who secretly reminds me a bit of a certain All Black first five who shall not be named).

And who wouldn’t want to spend their life with the most generous, caring and helpful guy known to man? One who never complains when he has to do more than his fair share in the family, a classic example being the past week when you’ve had to pick up all the pieces and keep things going when my brokenness has laid me low and incapable of doing much at all?  

Who wouldn’t want to live their life with a dad that her sons respect and look up to and who encourages them to be the very best they can hope to be? Who gives them opportunities to love all kinds of sport and new experiences and helps them learn new skills with the greatest of patience in all their hours of play together. 

And as we are about to enter a very new and different chapter in our lives together with a lot of leaping into the unknown still to come, I have no doubt there will be challenges ahead but I know together we can overcome them. I still say that taking a chance on a love that has already crossed oceans and continents and been the foundation for these amazing 17 years of shared Happy Birthdays together, is by far the best crazy, foolish thing I could ever have done. 

Love you my best ever birthday buddy 

xx Meg