12 Whole Years!!!

12 years ago I met Dena for our first “real” date at Louie The Blacksmiths Halloween party and we have been almost inseparable since that day, that day being October 25 1996.

Two short years after that day we called all of our friends and family together to meet us on an Island in the Puget Sound to celebrate a set of promises that we had written together for each other.

Ten years!

I never thought for a second before meeting Dena Hankins that I would be able to put up with a person for more then a decade but even more phenomenal is the fact that she has not only put up with all of my many idiosyncrasies but she in turn loves and respects me in the same way that I love, honor and respect her.
The promises that we wrote to each other and proclaimed to our family and friends a decade ago read like this;
We promised to work at loving each other.

We promised to take care of each other when we need it, to leave each other alone when we need it and to ask when we do not know which is needed.

We promised to communicate our needs to the best of our abilities.

We promised to remember that we are both individuals.

We promised to weigh each others wishes before making decisions concerning each other.

We promised to to try to know each other to the fullest extent possible in each phase of growth and change.

We promised to keep the above promises fresh and relevant and to keep our love young and new!!!

I look back over the last decade plus two that we have been together and I can clearly see that we have kept our promises to each other by simply loving and respecting each other.

…That’s easy!

Now I am ready to face the rest of our lives together, and no matter how many decades and miles we sail together as long as we keep our promises to each other we will only become stronger in our love and respect for each other!

Dena, I love you more today!

James