While helping my parents with their move a few weeks ago, I came across a letter my Mom had written to me the night before I was born. At the top of the three-page letter she wrote the date and time: November 3, 1980: 6:00 P.M.

She didn’t know if I was going to be a boy or a girl. She just knew that the next morning she would be having a planned C-section and delivering baby #4 into the family.

In one part of the letter she wrote about the love between her and my Dad. As I prepare to marry the man I love this Saturday, I find her words touch my heart in the most special way:

I love your father more than you will ever know. You may see us hugging and kissing and laughing and saying, “I love you,” but you will never know what goes on inside the heart, inside the mind, inside the inside until you find someone to love as much as I love him.

I know I have found that someone in Brian.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for giving your children a true example of a beautiful marriage, one that I aspire to emulate with Brian.