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!

Comments

  1. Happy Birthday Mike!!! You are a much loved and special person!!!! Wishing you the best!!! :)
    -Cori

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  2. Yes, Happy Birthday Mr. Wonderful.
    (It is Ploy's birthday tomorrow).

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  3. Thank you, sweetheart. What a great tribute! It was nice to have hair.

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  4. Happy Birthday, dear Mike. As I said after I met you in Japan: "To know you is to love you." This was a great tribute to a great person. Love, Shirley

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  5. Marie, What a beautiful tribute in words and photographs to your husband. Happy belated brithday to Michael.

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