Shelter of love

"The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along."

This Rumi quote was on the program from Dan and I's vow renewal ceremony in June, 2006. Today is my Dan's birthday. Forty-three years ago he was born in Bellvue, Washington to Curtis Dewitt and Alice Jane Snyder. I love knowing our love story began then. Years before I was even conceived my life was already meant for his. I love believing God's providence isn't always confusing but sometimes just beautiful.

I met my husband in 1999. I was twenty-three and Dan was thirty-two. A friend of mine from college worked with Dan at UUNET and rented a room from him. Before I even met Dan I went to see Afolabi and other friends in the DC area for the weekend and stayed at Dan's home in his room. Dan was gone in Michigan, but before he left he folded down his beautiful jacquard comforter, laid out a plush Ralph Lauren terry cloth robe and bought luxurious bath products to leave in the bathroom for me beside the big soaking tub. I was in love.

I hadn't had a real home since my parents moved from Staunton, Virginia to Ohio in 1994. I was seventeen then and very much on my own. I moved from basement apartment to dorm room to apartment to apartment . . . and even my Laura Ashley bed linens and battenburg lace shower curtain didn't make up for the fact I was very very homeless in all the ways that count. Dan and I began emailing one another after that trip and several weeks later in early March I came back to visit and meet him face to face. I knew right away I was finally home.

We have lived in nine cities and ten houses since then. We have gone from a luxury five bedroom, three and a half bath home to our sweet little rental here. We have sold almost everything we owned and started over and over again. Everytime we've moved the foundation and the roof have stayed the same. It's the shelter of this man's love that has made the places I have rested my head seem inconsequential. We are praying much about our living situation these days, and I sometimes think my soul can't take losing my nest again. Then I remember wherever Dan is and wherever Delaney and Danica are, I will be home. Providence is beautiful. Tonight we will celebrate Dan's birthday. This weekend Dan and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary, our love story.

"In the shelter of each other we will live. We will live. God has given us each other. We will never walk alone . . ."

This song is on repeat on my playlist these days.