A Poem for Chris

One day in the wee hours of the morning before the sun had made an appearance I was wide awake. Chris was pulling another all nighter at the school and baby girl was kicking up a storm inside my belly. So I did what I always did when sleep wouldn't come. I party planned. This particular morning I was thinking about the "speech" part of the night. I knew I wanted to "toast" Chris for his accomplishment but I also knew that I would be far too emotional that night to stand a shoot off the hip. 

As I started contemplating how best to express my feelings to him this poem was formed. And for preservation sake I will share it here.

We started on this journey just over 4 year ago

Little did we know back then just how much we’d grow

You entered into the program as a father of only one

We’ve added 3 more girls since then, oh boy, we’re in fun.

Looking back on the past 4 years the journey seems rather small

Wait, who am I kidding? That was one heck of a long haul.

These last few months seemed like they would last an eternity

Maybe it was the papers, the job hunt… or just maternity.

You’ve missed a lot of things these years. Appointments, Parties and Firsts

But you’ve always seemed to be right there whenever I would burst

You’d gently talk me off the edge and lovingly remind

In order to reap all the rewards we had to do the time

You missed a lot of things, these years but gained some new things too

Hearing Aids, Grey hairs and debt, just to name a few.

All joking set aside, it’s true your accomplishments aren’t small

Not many people I know can say they’ve climbed so great a wall.

The many nights you stayed at school Skype was our best friend

You’d call at bedtime to see the kids and all your love would send.

The kids know just how hard you work, and we’d always find it funny

When at night Kaden would pray you could go to work and buy us money.

We’ve come to the end of this journey, we stood through it side by side

We took the downs along with the ups and in turn lengthened our stride

We’ve been students of this college for all our married life.

But now I am happy to declare I’m Dr. Claytons wife.

And so my love you’ve done it! You finished out the course.

And now it’s time to move along and bring the world your reckoning force.

Before we turn the final page there is one thing you should know

I’ll follow you around the world wherever you may go

I’d follow you to China, or live in Timbuktu

But if you try to get one more degree…. I might be leaving you.