Brian's Birthday Surprise!!

I realized this morning that I hadn't mentioned what I did for Brian's birthday present.  So here is the story.

On January 1, I got on a cleaning kick.  As I was working on deep cleaning and moving furniture around in my bedroom, I got tired of stepping over Brian's box of memorabilia and military stuff.  I was going to shove it under the bed (where it belongs) but noticed some of the letters I had written to him when we were dating and engaged (there was no such thing as email back then).  As I was going through letters, I also found a bunch of letters from his friends in the military.  I wondered where some of them were and wondered if I could find any of them.  So I decided that for his birthday, I would find as many friends as I could to surprise him!!  He hasn't talked to any of them for 19+ years!!!
I got started by searching on FaceBook.  Then, if that didn't yield results, I went to Google.  I was surprised at how easy some of the people were to find!  I spent several days searching and writing emails and even calling a couple of people.  I asked everyone to email Brian to wish him a happy birthday.
On Sunday, when I picked Brian up, I wasn't completely sure how I was going to give him the surprise.  I decided to let him read my journal entries.  Which is totally unlike me.  NO ONE reads my journal!!  I opened my journal to the 1st and let Brian read that day and several more.  His jaw dropped, his eyes got big and he was completely shocked!!  Names he hadn't seen in years jumped out at him- Holly, Kim, Jose, Bob and more.
The best part was when he read about how I found his best friend (and best man at our wedding) Evan.  We've looked for him over the past 18+ years without any success.  With the help of a woman I don't even know, I found Evan!!!  I chatted with him on Facebook for awhile.  I arranged for him to call Brian while we were on our way home from the airport.  So I was driving and the phone rang.  I told Brian it was for him.  They were able to talk for about 20 minutes and catch up a tiny bit.  They'll have to spend a lot more time than that to really catch up!!
That evening (Sunday the 9th) he went on his email and found dozens of birthday wishes from family and friends.  He was surprised again!  He had no idea how many people knew it was his birthday.
I'm so glad the idea came to fruition and I was able to give him something that will last a lifetime!!!