50 things for his 50th

Mar 5, 2020

Today is Richard’s 50th birthday. We are not having a big celebration or anything – Carl’s removal is his present, I guess? He is in a lot of pain and last night was as miserable as can be, but we are planning on having his favorite lemon meringue pie tonight.

In honor of his 50th, I’d like to share 50 fabulous things about him.

• 1. He is patient with himself and others.
• 2. He sees the best in others and assumes the best of others’ behavior and intentions.
• 3. He is devoted to his wife and family.
• 4. He is an amazing fisherman.
• 5. He can eat anything. No matter how gross my food turns out, he eats it with a smile and grateful heart.
• 6. He naturally understands the process of learning and is an amazing teacher.
• 7. He doesn’t rush others.
• 8. He is willing to put in the hard work of learning new skills.
• 9. He gladly sacrifices his own well-being for his family’s.
• 10. He loves God with his whole soul.
• 11. He keeps his covenants.
• 12. He is humble.
• 13. He warms up my side of the bed so it is toasty when I come into bed.
• 14. He adores me.
• 15. He believes in my dreams, big and small.
• 16. The most important things to him in life are to be a good man, a good husband, and a good father.
• 17. He has never once raised his voice at me or our children. So incredible!
• 18. He takes our children backpacking and teaches them how to survive in the wilderness.
• 19. He was pretty much terrified of speaking to others until his mission. But he trusted God to help him and God gave him the words to say and changed him into someone who could talk to others. Now he has difficult conversations with distraught parents and frustrated teachers every single day.
• 20. He spends every Wednesday night with his dad helping him in the garage with whatever project they are currently working on.
• 21. He loves his parents and siblings.
• 22. He loves when I read to him.
• 23. For most of our marriage he has worked 60-90 hour weeks.
• 24. He listens to our children’s emotional upsets and is able to help them work through whatever ails them.
• 25. He cleans up all the throw up in our house.
• 26. His best therapy is walking a mountain stream with a fishing pole in his hand.
• 27. He wasn’t naturally good at baseball, but he wanted to play so much that he put in hours and hours and hours of extra practice time so he could compete with the other boys.
• 28. He loves physics. One of his dreams is to get a PhD in physics.
• 29. He has helped thousands of children and families with autism live more functional, productive, happier lives.
• 30. He is really, really good at understanding what children need to help them succeed.
• 31. He sees potential in everything, broken cars, homes, and most importantly, people.
• 32. He knows what can be done to fix those broken things.
• 33. He can laugh at himself.
• 34. He cooks all of our Sunday dinners. And many of our other dinners as well.
• 35. He likes to serve me breakfast in bed on Sundays.
• 36. He makes the best red potato-garlic mashed potatoes.
• 37. He loves hard labor like chopping wood, breaking down walls, and hoisting engines.
• 38. He loves babies. Pretty much all of them. And definitely all of ours. Between our living children and the ones we’ve lost there are seventeen and he tears up over those precious thirteen often.
• 39. He regularly stops to help people on the side of the road.
• 40. He forgives easily.
• 41. He loves watching his children do anything that is important to them.
• 42. He is gentle.
• 43. He is kind.
• 44. He is grateful for any kindness done to him or for his family.
• 45. He is honest.
• 46. He loves camping with his family in a tent in the middle of nowhere. The more rustic, the better.
• 47. He gets up day after day going to a job that doesn’t pay much and is full of really hard things because he knows God wants him to do it.
• 48. He is adaptable. Whatever life throws at him, he figures out how to work with it and does it with a smile.
• 49. He has great courage to overcome his weaknesses.
• 50. He loves all of his grandparents and was especially close to his Grandma Stella who he shared a birthday with. She always brought over a creamy fruit salad for just her and Richard to share. Today she would have been 113. With the loss of our little Stella, we are both thinking of Grandma Stella and little Stella a lot today.

He’s always wanted to live to be 100. Here’s to halfway! So glad he’s made it this far!