Your Blog has been hakked....by THIS guy....

Unbeknownst to some, Corinna and I have been married for eight years already. I have heard it said that as we get older time picks up speed, and I may be willing to admit there is some truth to the rumor. When I think about how many things we have done together, yet how quickly time has gone I am amazed.

I want to take you back a few years....

Summer 1995. I was a staff member at Camp Qwanoes, having what was, at that point, the summer of my life. I remember very vividly how much I loved being there and meeting all these amazing people, some of whom have without doubt defined who I am today. One person in

particular would fall into that category. This was the summer I first met Corinna. I really didn't know her at all that summer, beyond a few brief chats. She was simply the girl with the bright eyes and the great smile. And she liked to laugh....a lot. The joy that exuded from her was

undeniable, and won her over many friends at that place. I am sorry that I never threw you down Big Blue...your time is still coming ; )

Fast forward a few months and we would become "Buds". For the next few years we would hang out from time to time (mostly summer to summer in that place where we first met) and as time would go on other places too. At the time I could not have ever imagined the amazing journey that God had planned out for us....that I still have the joy of embarking on even this day.

Corinna is an adventurer at heart. Though there are adventures she would rather not be a part of (like bungee jumping or riding Big Thunder Mountain), she has managed to go on some spectacular journeys in her young life. Journeys that have taken her and her backpack across Europe and into Russia, all the while surviving on gelato, bread, cabbage and boiled meat. She has watched the sun set on the African plain and awoken with clouds in her bedroom high in the Alps. She has navigated routes through Joshua Tree and survived the freezing winds of Mt.

Rainier. Through it all she has grown, been stretched and gained an amazing view of this world,

one which she has shared with me. Though I am not an experienced traveler by her standards, I have been able to live vicariously through her stories and pictures, just as you have by reading

her many blog entries throughout the years. I look very much forward to the adventures I will get to share with her in the years to come...I just hope I can keep up with her!

The second time Corinna went to Russia was the first time I noticed her in a different light. I actually have a photo of the moment something snapped in my soul regarding this girl who would become my lover and best friend.

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We were at the airport. A number of us had decided to see Corinna off on another adventure, and as we hugged and she walked down the ramp towards the gates, something inside this blonde-haired young guy seemed to say "That is a sweet girl". We had been friends for three years, but suddenly I wanted to be something more. We chatted here and there while she was gone, and upon her return we began hanging out again, but this time it was different for me.

We started dating in 1999. It was a rainy day at Camp Qwanoes. Cor was in her gumboots (little did I know how much she loved those things), and as the rain fell and the leaf boats floated down their little rivers, a relationship began that would change our lives forever. We had our ups and downs throughout the next 4 years, but would ultimately ride that relationship to the height of the the human experience in our marriage in 2003.

We have had many adventures since that day...surfing the coast, moving to the prairies, having children, changing jobs, and trying to make the most of every day. The one constant in my life has been her. Her passion that is contagious. Her courage to move forward. Her desire to make the most of the journey that our Father has laid before her. Her love for the needy, most of whom she has never met. Her deep desire to build meaningful relationships. Her steadfastness in raising up our daughters in the ways they should go. The sacrifices she has made to be a wonderful mother. The ways she cares for me despite the challenge that I pose. I love her for all these reasons and thank her for how good she has made the journey.

I see us growing old together, laughing at our gnarly grey hair and forming the story's that will create the wrinkled old faces that even now she loves. I will always be your stoic Asian man, and I hope you will be my cute little Asian wife, flower in hand and twinkle in your eye.

I love you Cor...as big as a million.