11th Anniversary

This weekend is the 11th Anniversary of being married to my beautiful wife. We get to celebrate by having the weekend alone together. The Ferris' will be taking our boys for the weekend and we get from tonight until Sunday of alone time together. We barely get alone time together, so this is an exciting occurrence for us. We plan to drive up to Estes Park and explore on Saturday. Other than that, the weekend is up in the air. We plan to eat at some new and exotic restaurants this weekend. Perhaps we'll take in a movie. Or take a nap. Who knows? But, the exciting part is not what we get to do, but that we get to be together without distractions. One of our traditions on our anniversary is to talk about what we want our spouse to work on in the upcoming year, what we want to work on in the coming year, and what we want to do to improve our marriage. Also, we talk about the past year and what we've learned. In addition, we set goals for the new year. It will be good to talk to my wife uninterrupted and without distractions. I'm looking forward to our weekend together. I'm blessed to have my wife in my life. God knew what he was doing when He gave Joi to me. She is strong where I am weak and she makes me want to be a better man. I've learned a lot from Joi in the past eleven years and I'm sure that will continue for the rest of our lives together.

Joi, I love you more than I can ever express! Thanks for being my wife, putting up with me, and blessing me!

I wrote a song for Joi when we were dating. I made a (very poor) recording of it for our wedding. It was the song that we used for our first dance. The words are more true now than they were when I first wrote them about Joi. I'll leave you with the words to that song.

You Are Loved

By Christopher Copeland

Dedicated to Joi Stoffels on February 14th, 1998

You have blessed me more than you know (Proverbs 31: 28-30)

Your loving heart has helped me grow (Genesis 2:18)

You are perfect in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 1:27)

You are mine and I am yours (1 Corinthians 7:4)

You are loved (Ephesians 5:25-27)

No one can break this binding tie…

The Lord has placed between you and I (Matthew 19:6)

A lily among thorns are you, my Love (Song of Solomon 2:2)

A perfect reflection of our Father up above (Genesis 1:27)

I’ll give this day my very heart (Genesis 2:24)

Together…till death do us part

For better or worse, my Dear

I’ll always be right here (Matthew 19:6)

My love, like a blazing fire…

Burns with a mighty flame…

Many waters cannot quench my love…

Nor rivers wash it away (Song of Solomon 8: 6, 7)