The First Decade

We passed a milestone on July 27th--this past Thursday marked 10 years that Rachel and I have been married. It's a wonderful thing to be able to grow in Christ together and share all of life's experiences (good, bad, and ugly) with someone who is fully committed to you. When I look at my gorgeous wife and then take a quick glance at myself in the mirror, I'm convinced that our marriage had to be orchestrated by God Himself...there's no other explanation!

It's interesting how much life can change over the course of 10 years--it's no longer just the 2 of us, safe in our own little private world, free to be totally absorbed in our love for each other. God has added 2 darling, yet demanding children, as well as an enormous amount of responsibility in a growing, high-impact church. Needless to say, my romantic skills are not as keen as they once were.

I'm convinced that Rachel missed her calling to be an FBI agent because it is next to impossible to surprise her with anything. You only get 1 chance to celebrate 10 years, so I had to get creative. This would be a massive under-taking, requiring me to enlist the help of some special people. Through a series of rigged phone calls, I made Rachel believe that I had drug my feet making plans for a little anniversary get-away (this wasn't hard to do because it's normally true), and every hotel room in New Orleans and Baton Rouge was booked. After some late-in-the-game brainstorming and some heated conversation about my inability to plan ahead, we resigned to staying at home and watching a movie, while the kids went with grandparents.

Her disappointment and frustration with me seemed to grow...little did she know I was playing her like a game of checkers! After a few tense moments and apologies from both of us, I tried to salvage the day by telling her to pack her bags and see if we couldn't find a hotel in New Orleans with a last minute cancellation. She was reluctant, but felt that after 10 years of marriage and 2 children, it was more than just a stay-at-home, Blockbuster night.

When she got into the car, I had all of our old-school, love songs on cassette (c'mon baby, we were dating back in the stone age...no CD's, iPod's, or MP3's) !! A little Boyz 2 Men, some Celine Deon, a little L-train Luther Vandross, even threw in a taste of Shania Twain and John Michael Montgomery for good measure. We pulled up to the W Hotel in the French Quarter and were greeted with 5-star service as the valet service parked our car. To Rachel's surprise, the clerk at guest services let us know that a room was available--of course a room was available...I had sent Meghan, my assistant down earlier that day to trick the place out (candles, rose petals everywhere, 3 dozen roses, lotions & perfumes, chocolates, gifts, a card). I wanted to remind Rachel of all the reasons she fell in love with me, and that I was still her hunka-hunka burnin' love!!! The battleground had become a playground!!

When she walked into my little surprise, I could tell instantly that I went from a Zero to a Hero! We rolled out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse to make our 7:30pm dinner reservations, and needless to say, it's been a great weekend!!