Happy birthday my love

"If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea,
there will still be you and me"

Four years ago on this day, our instructor finally got around to breaking up our classroom into groups and we were thrown together. It was the last day of the best seminar I ever attended in my life *wink*. I'd spent the last couple of days finding myself looking sideways at you, hoping you wouldn't notice. Wondering what the hell I was doing, and knowing it was crazy but being drawn to you nonetheless. It was as if something in you held all the answers to the all questions I had always asked myself. I had listened quietly a few days earlier as you recounted, during a mid-morning break from class, heading to the southern shores of Alabama to assist in the search and rescue efforts after hurricane Katrina and I admired that.

I remember wishing you a happy birthday after one of your collegues let it slip and resisting the natural French instinct to plant a kiss on your cheek as I did so - Americans don't just smooch strangers, right?

I remember watching you go right to work on our group's assignment and knowing you were damn good at your job.

Later on, I managed to sucker you into presenting our group's ergonomic design project (ours was THE best)- I knew you were a gentleman who couldn't resist a woman's batting eyelashes. I was given a chance at that moment to just sit back and watch you. You rocked, once again.

After it was all said and done, the seminar finally came to an end. We wished each other a safe trip home. I watched you walk out of the room knowing I had met one of those wonderful men that makes a difference in the world.

Some force in the universe threw us together that week four years ago... and we kept finding our way back to each other even though we were thousands of miles apart. I would never have thought then, even if I knew you had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen on a man, that the moment I would end up in your arms I would know what it is to really be home.

We still have a long and difficult journey ahead, but no mountain, no sea, no desert can hold me back... somehow we'll make it. Just hold on.

Thank you for loving me the way no one ever has...