My True Love

My True Love,
I am grateful that eight years ago, I was asked out by a sweet girl from Georgia. Fresh off of a mission, and unsure about what was next, God knew who would be the perfect girl for me. He led a country girl from the other side of the country into my life. What a sweet memory it is for me to think back on how I met her. I remember going home from our first date filled with excitement and wonder. I knew that I was going to go steady with this sweet girl, I was comfortable around her and I knew we could get along well together. Things moved quickly, and Jessica had assurance that our relationship was right, and my assurance came soon after. I am the more stubborn one, and though I made my decision after she did, I knew all along that she was the one for me. Even though the first ring I gave her was a decoy, it represented to me that we would be friends first and forever. The next ring represented my eternal committment to her and my desire to walk together hand in hand, heart to heart, for time and all eternity. I will never forget kneeling across the alter in the sacred sealing room of the Salt Lake Temple, and having President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then a member of the Presidency of the Seventy tell she and I to focus soley on each other and to look deeply in each other's eyes. If you look in both of our eyes today when we are looking and thinking about the other, you will continue to see devotion, and a desire to walk with the other forever. Life has been good to us, Heavenly Father preserved miraculously our firstborn baby girl Alysson. She has filled our life with joy and admiration, and she has also stretched us more than we could have ever imagined. We began the various separations in life due to the Army. Those separations have ALWAYS brought us closer together, and have opened new perspectives on our need for each other, and our need for the Lord. Sweet Kasey came to us in Jessica's beautiful home state of Georgia. I am glad that Georgia has become part of both of our lives, and the life of our family. There is no place that we have been that feels so country, and where the hills touch you right to the core. Raising two girls has been wonderful, and challenging, and we both felt that there really could not be greater joy than these two spirited girls. North Carolina brought our family our greatest separation as I was sent to war. To me, this is one of my favorite parts about our relationship, because we corresponded through email every day. We learned more about each other, and we supported each other during a major trial in our life. We Also, met a family that we cherish as if they were our very own. I was grateful for my sweet heart and her support to me during some major challenges during the dark mist of war. Fortunately I was never a gunslinger, and despite various challenges unrelated to violence, I was able to experience the healing side of war. And through the grace of God, not only was I blessed to nurse the wounded to better health, I was able to become fully converted to a committment to follow the Master Healer. After war, came the wonder of Alaska, where we still reside. To me, my family has found a different kind of home, that I don't believe we have had anywhere else. Alaska is a remarkable and terrifying place and at the same time has provided our family with peace of mind, and a place where we feel our family coud truly stay for awhile. In a time of uncertainty around the world, Alaska has drawn out the best in our family, and has also brought some of our greater challenges. Despite the challenges, it has provided us a secure place to be refined and stretched beyond our young imaginations. Alaska has also brought us our little Steven, who has brought great big smiles on our faces, and has brought us a lightheartedness that we have needed for a long time. Sweet Steven has also brought a sparkle in Jessica's eye which means a lot to me. Life will continue to be filled with ups and downs, and I am grateful that I can walk a sometimes uncertain road with the one person in this life, that makes me feel completely secure and loved. She has believed in me, and I believe in her. We know all too well each other's faults, and have discovered many of each other's strenghthes. The beauty of choosing someone for eternity, is that we have a lot of time to work out our faults, and refine our limitless possibilities and potential for beauty, virtue, and things Divine. My sweet love helps me by her listening ear, her soft touch, her sweet smell, her angelic smile, her wonderful laugh, her faithfullness and fidelity, her forgiving heart, her unwavering devotion, her comfortable friendliness, her purity, her love, and her submissiveness to the will of our Heavenly Father. I love cuddling, holding her hand, opening doors for her, playing games, reading together, singing together, dancing together, and just being together. Often people say they are looking for the perfect one, the match made in Heaven! Jessica and I were led together, and the one thing we know is that we want to be together forever and always. So we work hard, forgive often, change what we know we must to make each other happy, and place a great deal of trust in the Lord to provide the strenghth, mercy, and grace that we need to be that perfect one for each other. Heaven matched us together, and the years and eternities will continue to unite our whole soul and heart together, knitted together, forever and always.