9 years married

On June 3, 2000, I promised “forever” to Clay.  We were a couple of starry-eyed kids who had basically no clue about life; we just knew we wanted to experience it together.  And experience it we have.  In our nine years, we’ve had 13 jobs between us, six moves, five vehicles, four babies, one miscarriage, one  trip back in time to primitive rural Ecuador, three dogs, five cats, one iguana, seven fish, one mortgage, seven family funerals, six churches, one car theft, several  heartaches, and immeasurable joy.   Goodness.  No wonder I’m tired all the time.  As I said last year, God is merciful to not show us everything the future holds.  I was never one to embrace change or adventure, preferring instead to remain in the comfortable familiar.  I would have been scared to death had I known what was in store.  Not that it’s been all hard or difficult, but there has been so much change and chaos in our lives to this point.  But through all the change, through all the chaos, our relationship has remained constant.  We had no clue what was coming, we just wanted to face it together.  And together, here we are.  Nine years later, stronger than we ever could have been without all the chaos.  Our prayer is that things will settle down now that we’re here in our new place.  We’d love to put down roots here and raise our family and build a fruitful ministry.  But maybe not.  Who knows what God has in store?  All I know is however many or few days He gives us until one of us goes Home, we are together.  Hand in hand, we’re facing life as one.  I am so thankful for my husband.  I do not say that enough.  Thank you, God, for Clay.

Happy anniversary, babe.  I love you.

When kissing’s not yucky anymore

Abigail has always said, “Ewww!” or “Yuck!” or some similar words of encouragement when she sees her daddy and mommy kissing.  So much so that Elisabeth even says “Lyuck!” when someone kisses her, just because she thinks that’s what you’re supposed to say.  Well, last night after supper, Abigail was still sitting at the table and Mommy and Daddy were hugging and smooching a little in the kitchen.  We caught her watching us and smiling.  I said, “What are you smiling at?  Aren’t you going to say ‘Yucky!’ “  She smiled, and said, “No.  I don’t think it’s yucky anymore when you kiss Daddy.”  I told her that was right, that it’s wonderful for a little girl when her mommy and daddy love each other and kiss and hug.  I told her that my prayer is for her to grow up and meet a man who loves God and loves her, and that she would hug and kiss her husband, too.  She thought for a moment, and said, “But what if my kids think it’s yucky?”  I told her to tell them that it’s not yucky, that it’s the best thing ever for a family for the mommy and daddy to love each other and kiss and hug, and for her to tell her kids that even if they think it’s yucky, that their mommy and daddy are going to kiss and hug.  I said to tell them that she thought it was yucky when she was a little girl, but now she knows the truth, and that she prays that one day they’ll have a godly husband to kiss and hug, too and then they won’t think it’s yucky anymore either.  I finally finished my speech and she sat there for a minute, still smiling at me.  Then she got a worried look on her face, and asked, “Will you write that all down so I’ll remember what to tell them?”

Happy birthday, husband!

Well, you’re a year past that first hill, and I think you’ll agree with me that the 31 birthday finds you in a much more agreeable spot than did number 30. May this be the first of many happy Salem birthdays.
This is the year, babe. This is your year. This is my year. This is our year. Make this your year. Be intentional. We’re ready. We’re standing right on the threshold and we’re ready. I’ve loved dreaming with you and now we’re ready to make those dreams reality. It’s been a wild ride full of lots of question marks that have now been turned into periods. Not all of them, but more than at any other point in our marriage. So the ride may still get wild at times, but the scenery will hopefully be changing less. I love you so much. Jump into this year and make it yours. I can’t wait to watch what God does this year in and through you. Thanks for letting me tag along. Happy birthday, Clayton. I love you.

By the way…

…as of yesterday, Clay and I have been a couple for fifteen years.  Impressive, huh?

Only 5 years?

On Saturday, my mom called to remind me what I was doing on August 23, five years ago.  A week or so before that date, I went to work for the last day, Clay and I went on a mini-vacation to Chicago, and then on the 22nd and 23rd, we loaded up the U-Haul and headed to Louisville.  Our plans were for Clay to go to seminary, get done in 3 or 4 years, and head overseas as missionaries by 2008 at the latest.  Has that really only been five years ago?  Is it possible that we have lived as much life as we have, in only five years?  We stayed on track with the seminary plan until fall 2005, although we changed career objectives during that time, deciding to focus on remaining in the states and pastoring.  Summer and fall 2005 brought a lot of junk at our church that ended up with us leaving, moving, and basically being in a funk for six months looking for new direction.  New direction came early in 2006 when we began making plans to move to Indiana with the objective of being church planters.  Signed the mortgage in June, church plant completely fell apart in November, also involving a lot of junk that left us in funk number two.  Clay took the only job available, at Terminix, and we began a new period of questioning, “Why on earth are we here?”  Now we’re still at Terminix, still wondering what God is going to do with us, and getting ready to bring home the third baby since that moving day five years ago.  We’ve added family members and lost family members.  We’ve lost touch with old friends and began new friendships.  We’ve held strong to our core beliefs about God and life while tweaking how some of them flesh out in daily living.  We’ve developed philosophies of what church should be, based on our negative experiences.  We were still pretty much perfect parents this time five years ago, and now we know that we basically know nothing about parenting.  We’ve celebrated marriages and births and an adoption, and mourned loved ones that are no longer with us.  So much life in such a short time.  Makes me kind of scared of the next five years, but I know that God ordained each one of those days, and He already has planned each one of the upcoming days.  Thank You, God, for Your Sovereign control and Your gracious love in my life.  Five more years?  Bring it on.