Dave turned 49 yesterday!
On March 23, 1959, a young girl gave birth to “baby boy Bigham” in Topeka, Kansas and gifted him to a large family where, at 5 days old, he was adopted and became “David Allen Rhoades.”
I hadn’t been born yet, but I am so thankful to God for the twists and turns and dead ends and interstate highways that brought him into my life so many years ago. With all my heart I believe God designed us for each other.
Yesterday I told him I couldn’t imagine my life without him. I think I would be just like Mary in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” who, when George Bailey had been granted the wish, via an angel, of seeing what life would have been like had he not been born – saw that the wife he’d known as beautiful and vibrant and loving and playful, without him was an old-maid-librarian, afraid of her shadow, afraid of him as he tried to approach her. So much of who I am is tied up in the love Dave has freely given me all our years.
So-I thank God for His wonderful plan, for including you in my life. But also, honey, I thank-you for choosing me above all others and for the times you have seen the best of the real me and coaxed it out of me. I am grateful you let me be the mother of your beautiful children and that you trusted me with your heart. You are ever and always my best friend, my lover, the one I desire. As we enter the second half of this marriage, your birthdays will continue to be “happy birthdays to me!”
I love you, Dave…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Love him, cherish him, stay in his corner.
pictured: My oh-so-adorable husband as a baby; Dave at Bible College, where we fell in love; Dave-my-lover more recently.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful tribute to your husband. It reminds us all that we need to honor our husbands!
Happy Birthday Dad!! That baby pic of you is my favorite – so adorable! You are the best dad in the world, and I really mean that. Thank you for all you have given me, and thank you for loving me so much even when I was not showing you honor as I should have been. I love you!!!!
I'm EXTEMELY blessed, to the point of my face being rocked off, to know you Dad! Love you! dp
Happy belated birthday to Dave. The baby picture is so adorable. I think baby Avery looks alot like her Grandpa when he was a baby.
Happy birthday Dave. If you think I looked like Mick Fleetwood, Then I think you looked like Ray Romano.
Happy Birthday dad! I can’t believe how many comments are already on here! That baby picture is also my favorite of all time. You are the most amazing and wise dad I’ve ever known and I love you so much!
Happy Birthday, Father 'o Mine! You are an amazing father! Thank you so much for loving us and bringing us up in the ways of the Lord. The more I meet children who have been emotionally and physically abandoned and abused, the more grateful I am for a father who loves me and shows me a little more of who my Heavenly Father is. I love you!
I love you too, Dad! I love that you were adopted and then YOU got to adopt me! You were born for so many reasons and I am definitely one of them. Happy Birthday!
Your tribute posts are awesome. I look forward to them, and feel blessed by the glimpse you give the rest of us into your family. What a loving post to your hubby (and what a cute pic!). This reminds me to pay more attention to loving My Hubby that way.
Happy B-day Dad, Thanks for being an awesome example of what a Dad should be. I always prayed growing up that I would be as great of a man as you are and Love my kids as much as you loved us!! You blow them all out of the water, I love you Dad. And you don't look a day over 30!! Love Rocky
I can't believe the outpouring, well I guess I can, I have a wonderful wife and children! Thank you so much honey, you choke me up. I love you so much.
And I have wonderful friends too!!! Thank you