14 Reasons

1. You make me laugh. Belly laugh. Like no one else I know.
2. You always catch whatever is thrown at you. And I don’t mean that metaphorically. Seriously, you’ve never dropped anything I have tossed your way.
3. You do the right thing without ever being swayed. You never even toy with doing something that goes against what you stand for.
4. You are unstructured. It may be (besides our love for Styx) the only thing we have in common.
5. You are self-motivated and can make yourself do things that aren’t particularly fun. That is very responsible of you.
6. You do not steal my spotlight.
7. You see more potential in me than I see in myself.
8. You stand up for the underdog.
9. You are really humble. (Or maybe I see more potential in you than you see in yourself?)
10. You know that I am expensive to keep around, and on most days, that’s okay with you. Except on the 16^th of the month when you have to pay the AMEX bill, and you wish you had married someone else. If you only hate being married to me one day a month, I can live with that.
11. You can cook chicken perfectly. And coming from someone who usually avoids chicken, that is a big compliment.
12. You are a dog person.
13. You are dependable. You do what you say you are going to do.
14. I feel safe with you, and I trust you completely.

14 of about 100,000 reasons why living life with you is my favorite thing. It makes me laugh to think about how long you were in my life before I realized that I didn't want the rest of my life to exist without you in it. I knew there was something amazing about us when I started thinking that “Linebarger” wouldn’t be such a bad name to have. Ah, what young love will do…

14 years later, I’m glad I traded my name for Linebarger, and I’m glad I said “I DO.”

And I still DO.

For richer or poorer. In sickness and in health. In good and bad. In happy and angry. In agree and disagree. In fulfillment and disappointment. In contentment and frustration. In rational and frazzled. In assurance and questioning.

I DO.

Even on the days when we’ve let each other down. Or we feel out of sync. Or we need to push the re-set button. Even on the days when life is hard or parenting is hard or doing the right thing is hard. And on the days where we want different things and can’t reach an agreement.

Even then, I DO. I choose you.

And I truly only have one reason.

I am absolutely crazy in love with you.