Karson & Natalie

Natalie,

I love you and will be forever grateful for the immense joy and love you have brought into my life.

You softened my hear. And you are my special sparkle

And we are here in Las Vegas. The place where we first met and the time I knew I wanted to live here. It felt like home.

But I don’t think it was about Las Vegas. I didn’t know it at the time but it was the closeness to you my soul was feeling.

It was in February; the month with your favorite holiday, Valentines Day. The day that celebrates love.

You make it easy to celebrate love every day. You don’t need a holiday.

And this is now another special day we get to celebrate love.

We’ve been from Tennessee to Tenerife but our adventures have only begun.

On this adventure, I promise to be your partner, to support your dreams, to always listen, and to never stop laughing with you, no matter if it’s here or there.

We now have forever. And in front of our beautiful children [Miles, Luka, and Theodore] and our families, for forever, I promise:

- To always listen - To always over estimate the cost of things - To cherish your body and your mind

I promise to be your paperweight if you will be my balloon

When we first started spending time together, which often look like long conversations after finishing work on Zoom, I was struck by how willing to be vulnerable you were. And as our friendship evolved, what I noticed was how self-aware you were with that vulnerability. You always own your part And that is who you have continued to show up as in our relationship. I often describe you to others as the most emotionally, intelligent man I have ever met.

I was in denial about loving you for what felt like a meaningful period of time… For all the reasons, including you being far too young, and living in another country. But if I’m honest I was at least somewhat in love with you before we officially went on an in person date.

You make me feel calm, safe, seen, loved just the way I am. OK to be me. Whatever me looks like on that day, silly, sparkly, serious, sad or angry. You always make space For what is without making me wrong.

Before you, I never knew what true partnership look like. Someone who loves you says I’ve got you. Shares not just the joy but the heavy lifting that inevitably shows up in everyday life, who says that’s figure it out together or don’t worry I’ve got this one.

I promise to keep my side of the street clean, to love myself and deal with my own garbage so I don’t project it onto you and our relationship. To hold our relationship as the sacred container that nurtures and nourishes us both to prioritize it, put into it regularly and consciously .

I’ve so many things about you. I love the way you take your time and think things through, and even though I have taken to saying, don’t slow me – I’m grateful for the pause and thought you bring to our lives.

I remember asking you tentatively three years ago on my birthday About transitioning from going around to making plans together for the future. And as we talked about it more you said we’ll be a family. And that’s how you showed up. I always dreamed I’d meet someone who loved my children, but never in my wildest dreams thought that person would see them as a gift. You’re an incredible partner, coparent, and I cannot believe my lucky stars every day.

With you, I found my home and for the first time ever I can see myself growing old with someone. I totally see you at some point with caramels in your pockets.

I cannot wait to continue to adventure with you. You are my favorite travel partner, but honestly, it all feels like an Adventure. I look forward to experiencing a new things and places together, or just lying on the couch rubbing your head and listening to you snore, sitting in the hot tub with you, or drinking 1,000,000 cups of tea in bed on the weekends and asking you approximately 1 million questions both silly and serious.

You taught me that love is encouraging the other person to be even more themselves. To be there to support each other as we grow together. To turn up our own special brand of weird and fabulous to an 11 and to celebrate that.

No matter what the future holds my vow to you is that I will choose to love you over and over again, even when things are shit or one of us is annoying. I will always say the thing… honestly communicate even when it’s hard and I’m afraid and I don’t want to.

Because I’ve never trusted anyone the way I do you, I know that it’s something we’ve built together through communication and vulnerability and I want to keep that alive in our relationship.

So my promises are: to communicate with you, be forever silly, come up with thousands of crazy plans, some of which will do, some I expect we shall ignore.

Cherish our life, cherish you. Enjoy the dumb moments and the grand ones.

Find a way to make almost anything into a game. Come to you with my joy, sorrow and disappointment, and to be there for yours.

I solemnly vow to be your biggest cheerleader and partner in crime forever and always to laugh loud often.

to create smart strategic plans for a life well lived while simultaneously not taking life too seriously. I love you.