Happiest of Birthdays to Our MVP - 2020

There's a well-established pattern of a spouse using their social media presence to wish birthday greetings on their partner.  It is a nice little experience - in that one gets to express their birthday wishes and (typically), the partners share parts of the social graph, so the community of friends and contacts get to weigh in.

And while, I *have* social media profiles, I actually don't use them to post.  But, like any child-of-the-Web-who-came-of-age-online-in-the-early-aughts, I have a blog.  And, I can use that to crow about our family MVP Natalie.

I'm posting this on July 11th - which isn't her birthday.  But, like some of you, she gets the daily email that gets sent out with my posts on the following day.  So, when she reads this (or you are reading this), it will be her birthday.

Nat is the glue that keeps us together.  But, she's also leading by example for our three kids in every facet of her life.  She's the leading voice in their world on right and wrong.  On how to treat other people.  On how to be a calm, collected human being.  On why repeat visits to Disney Parks is so much fun.  On how to explore new things, ideas and challenges.  On why we finish things we start.  On how they need to try new things (cuz they might taste good).  And why being kind to people is the right way to live.

I've posted about Nat's bday a few times here on the blog, but the most recent one seems to be three years ago in 2017.   This year she's celebrating being a 30-something-year-old and it sure looks good on her.

2020 has been a challenging year for everyone - including our family.  But, Natalie has managed to help us navigate anything we've faced with grace.  When we get out of our quarantine/whatever this is right now, and return to the "next normal", I can't wait to ride shotgun on all the adventures she has in store for our family of five.

Happy birthday, schnoods.  Let's get back to the Black Spire Outpost on Batuu when we can, mmmkay?