Winterpast: thanking Him for 18 years of loving...

It's been eighteen years since I stepped on board this ship, half a world away, promising to love and honor and cherish that man who'd captured my heart....

Eighteen years - and I can hardly believe it's been this long - since I spoke those vows and slipped the ring of promise on that finger of his, which it's never left for a moment since that day. (Quick confession here? I've slipped mine off a time or two...it's hard to make a meatloaf without removing the ring!)

Eighteen years, and I've spent the time raising just one shy of a half-dozen children, and I can still remember the look in his eyes on that morning all filled with sunshine and promise, because I see it still every day and how can one woman be so lucky, I stop to ask in the moments when I stop looking at lack and start looking in eyes-all-loving.