Isabella · A Private Monograph
ℐ
Apr · MMXXVI
Isabella
Issue № I · Volume of Us
ℐ
Apr · MMXXVI · For Her Eyes

for my wife, on her birthday

Isabella

April the Sixteenth · MMXXVI

A private record of the woman I love — her days, her people, her faith — assembled with every bit of love I have.

— from Joey, with everything

Osei & Osei · edition of one
turn the page
Printed on the finest cream
Contents

A monograph in five chapters

Some chapters are memories. Some are promises. Read slowly. None of it was rushed.

  1. I Our Story from a pew in 2019
  2. II Ten Reasons things I want you to know
  3. III Us, in Photographs a contact sheet of joy
  4. IV A Letter everything I mean
  5. V What Comes Next June thirteenth, twenty-twenty-six
Chapter the First
I

Our Story

From the beginning · IX entries
The day we met
aug · mmxix I / ix
I

August 18, 2019

The day I met you at church

You walked in like the room had been waiting for you. I didn't know it yet, but my life split into before and after that Sunday.

First date
dec · mmxix II / ix
II

December 3, 2019

The day I asked you to be mine

First date, first yes. I still remember the exact weight of that night — soft, a little nervous, completely inevitable.

Back together
jan · mmxxiii III / ix
III

January 27, 2023

The day I got you back

We grew apart, then we grew up, and then we found each other again. I will never stop being grateful for the second yes.

Engagement
apr · mmxxiv IV / ix
IV

April 6, 2024

The day I asked you to be mine forever

Down on one knee, heart in my throat. You said yes with the kind of certainty that rearranges the sky.

Traditional wedding
feb · mmxxv V / ix
V

February 14, 2025

The traditional wedding

You were breathtaking. I cried before I could say my vows. Our families held us up when my knees wouldn’t.

White wedding
feb · mmxxv VI / ix
VI

February 15, 2025

The white wedding — we did it again

Just to make sure. 😄 Two ceremonies, one promise: everything I am, until the last day I have.

Jamaica honeymoon
apr · mmxxv VII / ix
VII

April 28, 2025

Jamaica. Us. Paradise.

Salt in our hair, your laugh louder than the water. I would pay anything to rewind one afternoon of that week.

Baby news
sep · mmxxv VIII / ix
VIII

September 2025

We found out we were going to be parents

Two pink lines and a silence that filled the whole room. Then joy. Then more joy. Then the rest of our lives.

?

a photo
yet to be taken

IX

June 13, 2026

Baby coming soon

The chapter we haven’t written yet. The one we’ve been preparing for our whole lives, without knowing it.

Chapter the Second
II

Ten Reasons

Things about you I want on permanent record.

I — X
  1. I
    № 01

    "You sing worship songs like no one is listening — even when everyone is."

  2. II
    № 02

    "You take your patients' hardest days personally, in the best way possible."

  3. III
    № 03

    "You love your family fiercely and show up every single time."

  4. IV
    № 04

    "You have the kind of faith that doesn't need an audience."

  5. V
    № 05

    "You can make any space look like it belongs in a magazine."

  6. VI
    № 06

    "You're honest with me — even when it's not what I want to hear."

  7. VII
    № 07

    "You said yes. And then yes again. (Feb 14 and Feb 15.)"

  8. VIII
    № 08

    "You're going to be the most incredible mom."

  9. IX
    № 09

    "You wear beauty effortlessly — decor, fashion, you — all of it."

  10. X
    № 10

    "You chose me back in January 2023. I'll never get over that."

fin.
Interlude · between III & IV

Moving Pictures

A few moments that deserve more than a still frame.
awaiting development

reel tk
The vows Feb · MMXXV

I cried before the first line.

reel tk
First dance Feb · MMXXV

You whispered you were pregnant-cold.

reel tk
Jamaica mornings Apr · MMXXV

Salt, sunlight, your laugh.

to be filled · with time
Chapter the Fourth
IV

A Letter

For you — and only you.

private · sealed

Isabella,

I don't think I fully understood what I was signing up for when I met you in August 2019. I thought I was just meeting a girl. I had no idea I was meeting the person who would become my wife, my home, and my favorite human on earth.

You carry so much, and you make it look easy. You clock in at the ICU and care for people on the hardest days of their lives — then you come home and still somehow have more to give. You lead worship and pour into the youth at church. You make every room feel warmer just by being in it. And now you're carrying our baby. You're doing all of this at once, and you're doing it with grace I genuinely don't have words for.

I think about the version of us that broke up in April 2020. We both needed to grow. And we did — separately, honestly, and then back together in January 2023, better for it. I'm grateful we found our way back. I'm grateful every day that we did.

February 14, 2025. I married my best friend. February 15, we did it again — just to make sure. 😄 And then Jamaica. And then September, when we found out we were going to be parents.

You're about to be a mom. Watching you step into that is one of the greatest honors of my life.

Our child is going to have the most present, loving, fierce, beautiful, God-given mother. I promise to be the father you need me to be.

Thank you for choosing me — the second time especially. Thank you for your voice, your faith, your love for your family, your eye for beauty, and your absolute refusal to half-step anything you do.

Happy Birthday, Isabella.

I love you more than I did yesterday, and less than I will tomorrow.

Sealed on the XVI of April, MMXXVI
— Joey ❤
Chapter the Fifth · & final
V

What Comes Next

This year, everything changes.

You become a mother.

We become a family of three.

And I get to watch you become

everything I already knew you were.

Baby Osei — arriving

June XIII

the thirteenth of june · mmxxvi

Coda

to the most beautiful woman I know

Happy
Birthday,
Isabella

April · XVI · MMXXVI

"I love you more than I did yesterday,
and less than I will tomorrow."

made with every bit of love I have

— Joey