Steve and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary a few days ago. It’s funny to me how it seems like a long time ago and then it seems like yesterday that we were married and starting this great journey of life together. I don’t feel old, but when I look at the photos, we look so young.
What happened to those two young people? Marriage happened.
Two wonderful years in Starkville, Mississippi, and then life took some unexpected twists and turns and we ended up in Manila, Philippines, helping to plant a new church. And then the babies came, and oh, the joy that they were to us. And the church grew, and we planted more churches, and they continued to grow. And the boys grew and there was school and baseball and basketball and then tennis to fill our days and our years and our lives with such joy and busyness and wonder and excitement and so many great memories. And then college came, and one by one, they ventured back to the USA to study, and so we all just traveled more so we could keep up with each other and see each other and keep up with work and life. And then, William met Rachel, and Jonathan met Moriah, and we had two weddings in less than a year. And then a few years ago we welcomed Josephine Kate into our lives and family. And just one month ago we added another new member to our family -William III.
And here we are, thirty four years later, with a profound sense of gratitude for God’s faithfulness and goodness to us in our marriage and our family and with the work that He has given us to do. There have been many bumps and curves and difficult times on our journey but through it all, God has been faithful, and life and marriage are sweeter today than the day we said “I do.” We look forward to these next years together and thank God that His mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is great.