Happy birthday to my hubby

Wow, when did he get to be that old? No way... that means I'm getting older, too. Of course... when my daughter turned thirty I knew I was in trouble. :) I'm really kidding because I'm just glad to be here, after nearly going on to my reward a couple times.

I was nineteen and he was twenty-seven when we became engaged. Our wedding was just a week or so after my twentieth birthday. That is two "high school generations", when you stop to think about it.

Our age difference doesn't show up often. I've always looked older than I was and he looked younger. He used to look so much like Harrison Ford that he would get "looks" when he was walking through the airport (especially during the years after Witness came out) and actually had people stop and ask him if he was Harrison. Nope... just an engineer from the Midwest. He doesn't look like Harrison now... I tell him Ford has a better makeup person.

There are a few areas when we notice the age difference. Perhaps the biggest is our taste in music. I was from the Jesus People generation so I like contemporary Christian music. He thinks Southern Gospel is wild and crazy. I don't listen to K-LOVE in the car when he is with me. Instead I turn on one of the Moody Channels... he can handle that... or an "Oldies" channel. He's not fond of country music but he has watched Pure Country with me for about the twentieth time... sigh, George Straight... but I'm getting off track here (those who have been with me for awhile know Amarillo By Morning used to be my ring tone... before Tomlin's Amazing Grace).

He talks about old TV shows that I vaguely remember. By the time I was in high school The Beatles were breaking up and John Denver was (and still is) a favorite. Bobby Sherman was my dream boat. He was in school when The Beach Boys and other California sounds were the big deal. He still gets a little misty eyed when he hears Little GTO on the radio (his first car being a GTO and every car we've had since then doesn't measure up).

I had just gotten out of high school when the Vietnam War ended. He was there. He remembers what it was like to be told not to wear your uniform on your way home from the war. He loved watching China Beach but every time we watched The Duke in The Green Berets, he tells me it isn't realistic (ya' think?) ... "you don't find generals on the front line". He has kept in touch with his war buddies. They are old now, too.

That's actually how we met. He came back to the University after the war to finish his undergrad degree. He'd found out he was getting drafted after dropping a class... an art class of all things. So instead, he just went ahead and volunteered (it makes a huge difference in the Army if you were "regular Army" or a "draftee"). After finishing his undergrad degree, he decided to go on for a Master's. We met that summer when he had finished the B.S. and I finished high school.

There are a few good things about marrying an older man. For one, you start getting senior citizen discounts earlier. :)

It hasn't always been easy but there is one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. We were put together by God. He has told me many times that he wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for me. We don't have to go to the far ends of the world to work for Him. Most often it is in our own home as we minister to our husband, wife, children, parents, grandparents, siblings... that's why God puts the lonely in families. They are our ministry priority, everything else is just extra.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUBBY!