Dave turned 45 yesterday. It was his first birthday as an orphan, both of his parents are no longer with us. We didn’t do a whole lot, the two of us managed to go to dinner at the new Milestone’s that just opened up followed by a trip through Lowe’s. What is with guys and home improvement stores? With a birthday so close to Christmas… and with Christmas being the big BLOW-OUT that it was… dinner was all he got.

Before you wag your finger at me, his Christmas present was pretty fantastic, good enough for a birthday present too…. It left him speechless!

I want to tell you a bit about him. I tend to talk about my kids more… 🙂

Dave was born in Ajax, Ontario and is the youngest of five, he has an older brother and three older sisters. He grew up in a family who made going to church a priority, each and every Sunday, they rarely missed a day. They also had an open door policy, anyone and everyone was welcome & often had extra people living with them from time to time. Sound familiar…

At the age of fifteen he knew that one day he’d be involved in a church, in some way – some how. After he graduated from High School at the age of seventeen he headed to Rhode Island to go to Bible School. He finished his B.Sc in Theology from a Bible College in Minnesota at twenty-one. After returning to Canada he started working full-time as a youth pastor in a church near Ottawa. A few years later, he was Associate Pastor. At twenty-six he started his own church with the help of five other people, two were his parents. That church celebrates its nineteenth anniversary this upcoming Easter weekend!

That was a quick synopsis of his “work” side of life, although he wouldn’t call it work, it’s a part of his life, just as much as breathing is.

What about the in between… who he is?!

He’s an avid outdoorsman. He’s happiest when he’s in a canoe in the middle of a lake or in a tent in the middle of a heavily forested park. Before he knew one day he’d be a Minister, he wanted to be a Forest Ranger. His ideal life would be to lead a church that had a camp in the middle of the woods beside a massive lake. His Twitter handle says it all…. @canoehead1

He’s an attentive father. He spends a lot of time with his kids! A lot… and that’s not just because his office is in our house. He makes their lunches and helps me get them out the door in time for their buses. He volunteers to go on school trips and he takes them out for one-on-one dates. He bought our daughter a diamond pendent and told her that if any boy tries to give her anything smaller, give it back and say, “My Daddy can do better!”

He’s a marvelous husband. Our wedding day was our fortieth day in each others presence. We met at the end of August 1995 and married in May, 1996. I was from British Columbia and he was from Ontario. Our telephone bills while dating were on average $600-$700 a month. It was the strangest thing, I just knew, that I knew, that I knew, we were going to get married. I was so confident that I bought my dress before he even popped the question. Nearly sixteen years and four kids later, he still looks at me and says, “WOW, I’m glad you’re my wife!” The only arguments we’ve had over the years were surrounded around my issues with living in the fish bowl. In plain English… leading a church has had its head-banging, fist-clenching, monkey-wrenching moments. Overall though, I’d never want any other kind of life with anyone else. If you want to read up on how we met… click over to my post on our 10th anniversary.

Happy FORTY-FIVE Babe!

1 Corinthians 13:3b-8a