A Real-Life Gilbert

This man has had my heart for 18 years.

He holds it completely.

Even just from the looks of him, you can tell he's someone you can trust with your heart. And you can!

I grew up watching Anne of Green Gables, wishing that I had been born in another century. I read almost everything Lucy Maud Montgomery ever wrote (which is quite a lot!) and spent many hours wandering our property pretending I was Anne Shirley dancing in the mist with Gilbert Blythe.

Then, I grew up...a little bit. When I was thirteen years old, I met a real life Gil. Ours was a friendship that blossomed over time and many miles. He was a basketball superstar, I was a heads-in-the-clouds freshman. He was a college student and I was an independent teenager. He was a "Hot Shots" fireman all summer and I was a Christian camp counselor. Then, we were thrown together at the same college and the pieces finally came together. Two friends with a lifelong commitment to Christ. The timing was right. And I never wished I was Anne Shirley again.

Until this week. Because if I was Anne Shirley and he was Gilbert Blythe, he would not be flying across the ocean to explore Saigon, New Delhi, and Malaysia with a bachelor friend of his. I would get to sit and read books and wander Prince Edward Island with him instead of helping him pack for his adventure.

I know I sound like a whiner. I'm not. Really. It's just that he is a Gilbert. And although I'm not nearly an Anne Shirley, he makes me feel like her. Charming, complex, approachable, and of course, beautiful. Days without him feel dreary and lost, like I'm missing an arm or a leg. Or my brain.

My twin sister is learning to live like that, as her husband is here.



If you can't see it clearly, it's Afghanistan. And those men are guys who our family hardly knows, but who receive the majority of the prayers in this house.

Perspective helps around here. I'll stop the whining. But not the loving. That's like stopping the ocean tide.

Happy travels, Gil!