Happy Birthday, Lacey!!

I have heard for some time that a gentleman never asks a woman her age. In that spirit, I won't divulge Lacey's age in this space. If you are lucky enough to know her well, you already know. I'll just use this opportunity to let y'all in on a few things that I love about this girl.

There are things that I am challenged with that come very easy to Lacey. She is simply a whiz at simple math, house chores, and knowing what to say. "House chores" seems like a chauvinistic thing to say, but I do not mean it that way at all. I'll explain. When Lacey was home with Annabelle, I would regularly come home to a spotless house, piles of neatly folded clothes, and a hot dinner. To contrast, I was recently home with Annabelle, and all I could accomplish was vacuuming the rug in one room. Lacey has the gift of accomplishing many tasks at the same time and getting them done with extreme efficiency. I am constantly in awe of how much she is able to finish in any given time. To boot, everything she does, she does well. She has talent beyond compare.

Her main strengths are her capacity to listen to situations, process all of the possibilities, and then come to reasonable conclusions. Our marriage has benefited from this a number of times. I take advantage of this strength whenever I can. I have this funny feeling that her family and close friends know this is a strength of hers, too.

Infectious is the word that I would use to describe Lacey's laugh. We love to laugh in our house. I try to make her laugh at least once a day. I know that I have succeeded when she throws her head back or starts wiping tears from her eyes. Lacey's sense of humor has evolved past that of a twelve year old boy's, and that adds a degree of difficulty.

Reading is another of those things that Lacey is much better at than I am. She reads voraciously. Reading is such a part of Lacey's life that it bounds on addiction. She is an avid reader with a wide variety of tastes. Lately, she has taken an interest in historical fiction. That was a complete surprise to me. That's a fun thing about thinking you know someone so well. Whenever there are surprises, they are much larger than they would have been otherwise. If we play our cards right, our little ones will take after their mother and develop a love of reading much earlier in their lives than I did.

There's no denying that I am not comfortable with words. Heck, this post probably took about three hours to write. Lacey never has trouble expressing herself to people. Words just come natural to her. Her specialty is words of affirmation, and she shares them without prejudice strengthening all of those around her.

You could not find a lovelier wife for me or mother for Annabelle. Lacey was put here on Earth for us. There is not a day that goes by without me giving thanks to God for bringing her to me.