Happy birthday, Mr. Wonderful!

Forty-some odd years ago (one before 50!), the love of my life was born in Panama to an Irish father and a Russian mother. He spent his childhood around the world (Switzerland, Australia, Belgium, and I'm forgetting at least one!), because his father was in the British Foreign Service. When he was nine, he was sent to a Catholic boarding school in Yorkshire, and that and their house in Reading were his home bases during his adolescence as his parents moved around the world. After earning his degree in English at Exeter University, he went on to earn an M.Phil. at Oxford. Inspired by Japanese friends he met at Oxford, he then decided to teach English in Japan. And that's when his life truly began (meeting me!). Haha.

We met 25 years and 2 months ago, and I married him 21 years and 9 months ago. I feel truly blessed to be married to and partnered with this amazing man. I couldn't have dreamed of a more perfect person for me. Happy birthday to my Mr. Wonderful...this is your (adult) life in pictures!

The young man I fell in love with in Japan

Groom

Gifted with children

With my cousins Annie and Elena  (who were in our wedding)

 Tour guide

Visiting a Yorkshire pub in the early 1990s

Lover of the outdoors and beauty

Butchart Gardens, 2000 (our 10th anniversary)

 Loving, fun, and fantastic father

With Chris right after coming home from the NICU

With Baby Kieran

California, 2006

 

With Baby Nicholas

Loving and attentive son and brother

Nephew

Dual American-British citizen

 Builder

 Good sport (and Thomas Merton)

 Friend

Liberal 

 Book lover!

 Brother-in-law and son-in-law

Fun uncle

Writer

We look forward to celebrating your birthday with you, as we have done in so many different places over the years:

New York City

Puyallup

The Oregon Coast

Happy birthday, sweetheart!