I love you - ani ohevet otcha - אני אוהב אותך

SEPTEMBER 23, 1998

The day my boys walked me to my future - This is the day that I married my best friend

We met 21 years ago on IRC in the #BBW-Over40 channel where I am an op .. I noticed him right away - we were on the same ISP .. WOW .. someone from my own town. We chatted a while ... but for one reason or another, things just didn't click - I suppose, looking back over it all now, it just wasn't meant to happen then.

Then in the fall of 1997 he messaged me again ... and once again we started chatting. He was surprised that I remembered him but I did ... and this time, obviously, things took off. We chatted on line and on the phone for weeks - always putting off any suggestion of a meeting - maybe it was my own insecurities, my own fear of failing again, but I finally agreed to meet him for lunch. That day waiting for him in the Red Lobster I was one nervous puppy !!! I saw him walk up, he looked just like the pic I saw of him when he had his mini-cam going that one Sunday morning on-line. All I could do during that lunch was stare into his gorgeous green eyes and tell him how beautiful they were and just smile. He fumbled for words .. but we made it through. He walked me to my car and kissed me good-bye. As I drove back to work I was all smiles and had such a good feeling inside - something I can't quite define but I knew I wanted to see him again. I knew then that I had finally found my knight in shining armor.

Anyway ... we were married Wednesday, September 23, 1998. How did we come up with that date you ask {esp. since it's a Wednesday}? Well, it's a combination of his birthday and my birthday {sweet huh? he thought of it} but the best thing is - it was also my dad's birthday - and up that time, my boys and my dad has been the most special men in my life.

The wedding was BEAUTIFUL .. if I must say so myself. Daryl and his best friend Harold did a wonderful job getting Harold's property set-up. They used approximately 7,800 little Christmas lights {7,200 of them white} to line the path going up through the woods and then to line the perimeter of the clearing where we got married. The music you hear playing is How Do I Live which is what we started out our ceromony with. My maid of honor and our kids walked up to the canopy with that playing. I can't imagine not having Daryl in my life.

My fairy tale wedding consisted of - 2 10x20 canopies set up for people to sit down and eat their steak dinners which Harold grilled to order for everyone, a screen tent where "our" daughters served the food and our cake was set up {which my mom made for us}. We had an arbor, which was set up with purple silk wisteria hanging from it {and lights} and we also had a canopy set up under which we said our vows {a makeshift chuppa for our somewhat Jewish ceremony}.

All in all - the Lord above {and my dad and his mom} had to be looking over us - as the sky was clear and full of stars that night .. not a drop of rain - although the temperature dropped to somewhere in the 40's so it was a BIT cold that evening - but I figure if that is the ONLY bad comment folks can say about our wedding .. then it went off without a hitch.

Thank you Linda and Perry {my sister and brother} for flying from California just to be at my wedding, you will never know how much that meant to me.

I am now Mrs. Daryl Holtkamp and have NEVER been happier in my life than I am now.

Since I'm Jewish hubby even made sure we had a "chuppa" of sorts to get married under - he even broke the wine glass !! (Yes we had a Rabbi - the rabbi from my synagogue agreed to do our ceremony - we also asked a preacher from Daryl's church and he agreed, said it would be the first time he would have done a service with a Rabbi BUT the morning of the wedding, he called and cancelled - excuse was OH he didn't realize he already had something booked for that night. Yeah, whatever !!

Our guests had steak, baked potato and all the fixings for dinner (not only was Harold the best man, he was also our chef at the grill (I mean - after all it was his place we were getting married at) !!

Come join us :) https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=RLS0G6rXSlY