A love story

Dear Miss Taylor,
How foolish I feel sometimes when I realize the thoughts I allow to form, unchecked. in my mind. Our time together so short yet I already feel so certain of so many things. The same certainty that I felt that no other woman was right for me, I feel towards you for very different reasons. The night we first spoke I fell instantly in like with you. Every minute since then has only sowed to strengthen that feeling and has been incomparable to anything I've known. Everything with you is so natural, so uncomplicated.
During church, I remember looking down at you, seeing you, the most beautiful woman I know, standing proudly beside goofy old me in front of your entire congregation. I just knew I was dreaming or it was a joke or you had a catch; but to my surprise and honest astonishment and disbelief, you just keep getting better and better. Not only are you everything I have ever dreamed of, you are exponentially more than that. You have brought so much into my life-wonderful, incredible things I never would have comprehended I was missing let alone existed without you.You have this unbelievable ability to make me instantly happy and smile despite the mountains of work and stress of the world and school. No matter where we end up, I will be happy. I will cherish you for the person you are and you have already and I have no doubt you always will be the reason I strive to be the best man I can be and to grow deeper in my relationship with God.

Yours and yours, alone,
John Lewis Porter

My Dearest Taylor,

When my grandmother was dying, I did my best to become close to her before we couldn't hold conversations anymore. It wasn't long before we began talking about her late husband my grandfather. She told me how he used to play the piano for her and I could tell she missed him and the music he played. So I went out and learned the song she mentioned to me. I played it for her soon after and she just sat there, crying, excruciating love apparent on her face, the love she still held for her husband decades after seeing him, never having considered another man. Ever since then, I've dreamed and prayed for a woman I could share a comparable love with. As of late I have been finding myself playing my grandmothers love story on the piano.

Yours and yours, alone,

John Lewis Porter

The sermons you sent me discussed the initial phase of love, the season of perfection. Well if this letter isn't enough indication, I'm definitely experiencing that season. I feel, however, I've already moved in to the next season, that of preparation. He went on to talk about maintaining high standards in the relationship, something I perceive our desires toward purity is on target. He continued by stating families should be involved. Your parents obviously have been here every step of the way. He finished by discussing conditional access. While I have no doubt your father will ensure this, I promise you Taylor, I am, and will remain, a Godly man for you and us.

Yours and yours, alone,

John L Porter

My Sweet Taylor..

How you've opened my eyes to so many things; homemade pizza, organic maple syrup, dancing in the rain. But, most of all, true love. Yes, it is now, after being swept away by you, that I understand what those hyperbolic poets wrote about and the dramatic movie producers gush over. What C.S, Lewis wrote about and what we read the other night-about failing to comprehend the true greatness of something, how the experts of a field know everything that every amateur knows. I feel that way about our love.

I won't always make you happy and I know that there will be stressful days, disappointments and disagreements. However. even these pains are better than my best days before you, living life alone for no purpose, and with no passion. Our love, I've noticed, only seems to become better, richer, deeper, fuller.

I will never forget the love you've showered me with, or the change you've already brought about in my life.  

Yours and yours, alone,

John Lewis Porter 

Dear Beautiful Birthday Girl,

The sermon you sent me said God made woman to help man accomplish the things he cannot accomplish on his own. I know I've said this before, but meeting and falling in love with you has made the things I'"m unable to accomplish on my own abundantly clear. So, on this day, I celebrate your life for your life means the completion of mine. I am overjoyed to be able to celebrate your life with your family, friends, church community. We celebrate you for the good works you've done, for the love you shower on everyone, for the selfless care you provide for your siblings. 

Yours and yours, alone,

John L. Porter   

For seven months now this shoe box filled with homemade breads and cookies and enduring love letters has made it's way back and forth from Auburn where John lives (and will be finishing up his senior year as an electrical engineer) to our little country mailbox that Taylor checks everyday. I have watched my little girl walk the driveway since she was seven years old and had her first pen-pal. Sometimes she couldn't wait till she got home to read the words so she would sit in the pasture and savor every single thing her friend had to say. She would cook while reading letters and read her letters to us by candlelight at the supper table.

 So when her first letter from John came shortly after they met I knew her walk to the mail-box was different. I knew my little girl was grown now and when she pulled that first letter out the smile lasted all the way till she walked up the steps onto the front porch.

I have always known that God meant for Taylor to be a wife. She longed to find her soul mate. She longed to find a man who wanted a wife in a world where so many men are choosing to wait until they have partied or "lived" a life of freedom for a time. She didn't want a man who thought marriage was the last thing you did before you died. She wanted a man who knew that God ordained marriage to be a gift and a blessing. She wanted a man who knew how important family and community was.
So for the past 7 months John has made his way to our home and to our church. He has answered 100+ questions from our closest friends and Elders and so many family meetings that I dare not mention all of them. He has spent one on one time with me and Scott and every one of her brothers and sisters. He has built a fence on the property with Tucker by his side just to help out.

He reads bedtime stories and holds the little girls until they're crying when he has to leave. Back in May John's family and our family made our way to the same beach and got to spend some time together. I knew when John asked Scott and I about marrying Taylor that the answer was yes.

But reality sets in quickly for me. I cry like I've never cried before. Taylor is my first born daughter and very best friend and if you know us at all you know we are joined at the heart. John was asking me for something that I truly didn't know how I was going to give up. You see we cook together every single night and listen to music and tell jokes and read blogs together. She holds one baby and I hold the other when they're sick.
She crawls in my bed and we giggle about hopes and dreams. We eat Mexican on any given day and we both love canning and learning new things .My mind racing to think about my home without her here.

But God tells me in his word there is a time for everything. A time for Taylor to be here and a time for her to leave and it's her time to leave. I sat on the edge of her bed yesterday as she held up things that represented her life for the past 20 years and said should I keep this? Do I need this? Channie can have this. All of these are just things trinkets, books, dolls and I just thanked the Lord that I have spent hours of my time training her to love the Lord and to serve others, to cook and run a household because those things can never be boxed up.  I pray she lives them out every day with John. I pray that as good of a friend she was and is to me that she will be doubly so to him. I am gaining an incredible young man whom I will be proud to call son.

So yes, John, you can have the other piece of my heart and I trust that she will be a  beautiful, loyal daughter of the King to walk beside you all the days of your life.  

 Soon to be married in Oct 2013