Happy Anniversary!

1994~Sweethearts















1999~Our wedding

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits...who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle" Ps 103:1-5

Dear Chris,
It's hard to believe we have been married for 8 years...even harder to believe that we have been friends for 15 years! The goofy look on our faces only highlights the fact that we had no idea what God had in store for us. For example, who knew that we would actually stay in the full-time ministry for as long as we did. Remember us making bets on how long we would keep our jobs? Those were wild times...changing our address every couple of years, starting all over with relationships again and again. Amazing that God used us to make any kind of impact on people when we were really just trying to figure out life ourselves. As if life wasn't crazy enough, I decided to become a college student again. At the time, Meagan was 2, and my life was full of Barney and dirty diapers...I thought, what graduate school would give me the time of day? You gave me the courage to apply to the really good schools and repeatedly told me that I was smart and valuable. Your enthusiasm never waned, even when my dreams meant that the only affordable apartment had chain smokers living downstairs and was in the not-so-nice part of town. Even when you were stuck being Mr. Mom, and me on the verge of a stress-induced nervous breakdown. Even when you picked up a part time job clearing trash and cleaning toilets at Starbucks so that we would have health insurance. Now, for any ladies reading this, that is the very definition of romantic. And I certainly never imagined that our prayers for children would be answered in the way that they have been...with the unexpected birth of a daughter, the loss of a daughter, the adoption of a daughter and the years of infertility woes in between. I knew that life would throw us curve balls, I just didn't think there would be so many. Many times when I am tempted to beg, "God, why can't my life just be normal?", I stop and remember standing there, staring at you on our wedding day. I can't say that I was secretly praying for a normal life. I looked at you and you looked at me and I wanted a happy life with you by my side. What God acutally gave me was that and so much more...a full life, with unexpected delights at every turn, bursting with adventure (more adventure that what I am comfortable with) and peace. God has given me peace. I think about that Psalm quoted above. When we placed it on our wedding invitations and I had no idea that it would become the song of my life. The rest of it goes..."bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits, who pardons all of your iniquities, who heals all of your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things..." In a way, you are the "good things" in human form, that God has lavished on me. Do you ever wonder how on earth have we managed to cram so much life into eight measly years? If the next eight are anything like the last, then bring it on...joys, heartaches, ups, down, ins and down-and-outs. God has a funny way of making sure that we are not bored, and you, my dear, are His very unexpected way of showing His goodness to me. I love you.

Jen