Before you now is a true life love story.  It is not the idealized, romanticized, fairy tale type of screenplay your mind has been trained to expect, but rather the crude and faithful, honest retelling of events and sentiments exactly as they happened, exactly as emotions evolved.  This is to me supreme openness, the mirror reflection of God’s perfect layout, a fair representation of details too wonderfully complex to have grasped as they were introduced, flawless and beautiful in retrospect.

I had thought with absolute certainty in my youth that I knew the ways of God, but I was wrong.  The manner in which he brought my wife to me is staggering in its intricacies, with every pleasing element of humor, irony, and compassion, and every aspect in absolute clarity of love and of the fruits of the spirit.

This is the first collection of writings for the object of my affections, the recipient of my passions, the compliment to my demeanor and companion of my desires.  This is the journal from my final days of bachelorhood, the sincere account of what so thoroughly integrated my best friend into my life that she had to become my wife.  No other work brings me such pleasure or leaves me with such hope.

Let this, then, stand as a testament to God’s goodness and the healing power of love.  I have in marriage retained every depth of passion my formative years knew, but it all has been refined, honed to near perfection of design, and become an aid rather then an end, a tool for living rather than a substitute.  Let those who knew me marvel at what I am growing into with my wife as my support and focus.  I no longer have any hopes but to be an extraordinary husband and a meek and kindhearted man.

With this eighth book, I draw to a close my first twenty-five years on earth.  The next will undoubtedly bring more blessings than I can grasp.  As for the repercussions, we shall see….