Vows
His Vows
To my friend, my lover, my partner in crime and now my wife.
When I first met you, it was during a turbulent time in my life. I was surrounded by constant negativity which was slowly draining me. I had little to no faith in relationships to the point I was mentally content living with the idea of dying alone, but when you think you don’t have anyone on your side God always has a way of reminding you that he’s always there.
When we found each other, I didn’t know what to expect since I didn’t expect anything anymore, but when I looked into your eyes God got exactly what he expected and we fell in love. From your beautiful smile, to the way you did your hair and your wonderful fragrance I couldn’t stop thinking about you. The thought of you consumed my mind.
When I look back at our relationship, there was one of many defining moments that I knew I had found the woman I’ve always been waiting for. You had come to visit me at my home after I met you a few times and I was so embarrassed because at the time everything was taken from me, even my daughter. I had no beds, nowhere to sit, no TVs to watch, and just one air mattress which we gave to JC to sleep on. When it came for us to go to sleep, we walked into the room and it was empty with just some blankets and pillows on the floor. When we laid down, I couldn’t even look you in the face from the embarrassment. But you grabbed my face, looked me in the eyes, and told me everything was going to be ok. We gave each other a kiss, we held each other close, and fell asleep in each other’s arms — and everyday has been more than ok ever since.
In Genesis chapter 2, verses 22 and 23, it states: “And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” “And Adam said: this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
When I think about those verses, I think about you, and ever since I met you I’ve been praying to God to put that rib back into me, that way I’ll always have you by my side. I promise to love you, honor you, cherish you, and love your children as my own, and promise to help you raise them into the fine men and women we know they’ll be.
To Mr. Hill and Ms. Hyde — today, I promise to you that from this day forward, I will always love and protect your daughter with my life, just like I know you guys would do. I promise today that your daughter has seen her last days of crying unless it’s tears of joy. I will show her love and affection, and caring. She will only know happiness, because now she has a real man in her life.
I look forward to the rest of our lives together. I look forward to growing old, still picking up truckloads of Amazon packages from the front of the house. I look forward to you yelling at me because I leave half-empty water bottles everywhere, knowing you hate it. I know one day we’ll be together, really old, in our final days, and I’ll grab your face, hold you close, look into your eyes, and tell you… everything’s going to be ok. I love you.
❤
Her Vows
Manuel Isaac Velez, amor — since the day I met you, I knew you were the man I had prayed for. I wish I could stand up here and promise you the world, but the world isn’t mine to give. What I do promise is my world, forever, and all it entails. Like Ruth in the Bible, I vow to never leave you or turn my back on you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so, nor will even death separate you and me.
I vow to work at our love and always make you a priority in my life with every beat of my heart. I vow to be your lover, playmate, and best friend — your partner in parenthood for our fabulous four children. To always make our family’s love and happiness my priority. I will be yours in sickness and health. I will dream with you. Celebrate with you. Just like Eve was built from the form of Adam, I will walk beside you through whatever our lives may bring. I vow to be your ally in conflicts against the world, your greatest fan. I vow to nurture your dreams — including crypto, and the Mets winning the World Series — because through them your soul shines. I vow to continue to help with our challenges in life, for there is nothing, and no one, that we can’t face if we stand together.
Love has given us wings, and our journey begins today. I will stay by your side as your wife. You are my person, my love, my life, my today and forever. Today I am not just marrying you, Manuel Isaac Velez Jr., mi amor, but I am marrying all four seasons of you — when you are happy and mad, when you are stable, when you are broke, when you’ve been hurt, because people change, and it’s not that they really change, it’s who they are under certain circumstances.
This is my sacred vow. I will love you from this moment on. Be devoted to our love. Therefore, what I have prayed, and God joined together, let no one separate.