Alabama won the game that night and she started to win my heart. I saw in Dena a woman of grace and of unmatched beauty. I remember thinking the whole next day, how did I get so lucky? What did I do to deserve to spend time with such a great woman?
Over the next six months we grew to love one another and I decided that I couldn't live without her. I asked her to marry me and to my surprise she said yes! Again I was thinking what had I done to deserve a woman as good as her? I was half expecting to wake up from this dream that I was in or her to realize I was unworthy of her. But by God's grace she decided I was good enough to keep around. Even though I fell through her ceiling, blew up her garage door motor, and was a complete klutz around her.
She accepted all my faults but one. She told me she couldn't marry a man that wouldn't go to church. At that time in my life, church was the last place that I wanted to be. I was on the run from God and anything to do with His way of doing things, but I loved this woman. Who could say no to her? I, begrudgingly at first, started to attend services regularly and God started to work on me. It was in August 2010 that I had a "break through" and it was when I knew for sure that she was meant for me.
I'll never forget August 2010, I received a call from my ex wife and she demanded that I send my oldest son back to Arkansas to live with her and my other two children. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I remember sitting in our master bath talking it over with Dena and trying to make the best decision for my son. I remember finally coming to the decision to send him back to Arkansas and then collapsing in the floor in a heap of tears and wailing. What I remember most was what happened next. I felt a hand on my back and an arm around my neck, it was then I realized she was on the floor with me crying out to God on my behalf. That did it! Both in our life and my decision to come back to God. She showed me the woman that she was, how much she loved me, and God showed me that I wasn't alone in my pain, that I could come back to Him no matter what I had said or done. She showed me God's love through all this and as long as I live I will never forget that moment, it is a huge marker in my life.
Another marker is the day we were married. It was a Sunday afternoon in our living room of all places. We grabbed the local judge on the way out of church, much to his surprise, and called our immediate family and told them we are getting married at 3pm and would like them to be there. Even as simple as our vows were I will never forget how beautiful she was and how nervous I was that she would realize how big a goober I really was and take off running! But she stood her ground and married me in spite of my faults.
I remember going to church that night and our daughter Olivia telling everyone that would stand still that I was her new daddy! I found out later that she had asked for a "daddy" for Christmas back in 2008, a few days before our first date. Don't let anyone ever tell you that God doesn't listen to the prayers of little children!
Our road together has had it's ups and downs. Sickness, surgeries, arguments, job loss, and all the stuff that comes from being married. We blended two groups of people and made a family from it. We don't always see eye to eye but there is mutual love and respect for one another. We survive through prayer for one another and patience that is given from God. We have a sign that hangs in our house that says: In this house we do second chances, we do grace, we do mistakes, we do real, we do I'm sorry's, we do loud really well, we do hugs, we do love, we do Family.
There is not a day that has gone by since that day back in August 2010 that I don't thank God for bringing her and the children into my life. I pray that I am the husband and father that they deserve and I know that without God I can never be either of those things.
I know I am a few days early but I want to tell Dena, publicly, Happy Anniversary, and that I am without a doubt a blessed man.I am sorry for the times I fail and know that I am striving to be the best husband and father I can be for you and our children. Thank you for loving me in spite of my faults and basically for putting up with me. (I can be hard to live with sometimes! Shocking, I know.) I love you Dena!
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