Happy Anniversary #33

Today marks my 33rd wedding anniversary. To the same wife!  June 21, 1980 was the second most important day of my life.  Next to becoming a follower of Jesus when I was 7, marrying Dedo was the most important decision of my life.  It set the trajectory for a majestic life, career, children and grandchildren.  If I knew how huge a decision it really was, I would have totally freaked out.  But we were young and naive and in love.  We had no clue what was about to happen.

I met Dedo primarily because of her name.  During my freshman year at Tech, we had a math class together.  The first day of class, the prof called out our names to check us in.  When he called out the name

"Dedo Wray," I perked up.  First of all, who is named Dedo? I looked around to see who would answer and I heard this twangy West Texas girl yell out "here." There she was sitting on the back row of the class next to the star quarterback Rodney Allison.  She was beautiful.  It was also the last time I saw her in class.  She somehow managed to pass the class without ever attending.  No worries.  I also saw her in the dorm cafeteria with all her friends from the 9th floor of Chitwood.  As a Coleman resident, we shared the same cafeteria.  I loved watching her because she was also having fun. As the semester grew longer, I got to know her a little through other friends.  We ran in the same large circle of people, but never really clicked until the end of our sophomore year.  During finals, I asked her to go out to eat during a study break.  We went across University Dr. to a hot dog place where you could get 10 hot doges for a dollar. We had so much fun that I walked out without paying.  She made me go back.

She made me a better person.  She's the one who got me back into church after rebelling against Christianity for a couple of years.  We fell madly in love during our junior year.  Our first date was to a movie called "Duchess And The Dirt Water Fox" with Goldie Hawn.  We went to every Tech home football and basketball game although she wasn't interested in sports.  By our senior year we had started talking about marriage.  We graduated in 1978 but because of my job, we decided to wait to marry. We were engaged in the Fall of '79 the weekend that Tech played USC.  We married in June of 1980 and the rest is history.  I don't know if there was any connection, but that summer was the hottest on record with 60+ days of 100 degrees or higher.  And we had no air conditioning in our first house in Waco.

We've lived through lean years, healthy years, sick years, prosperous years, children years and today we are still living.  I love her more than ever and would not change a thing about her over the past 33 years.  She still makes me a better person and that's what I love most about her. Without her, there is no telling what I would have become.

Honey, I love you and can't wait for the next 33 years.