Anniversary

I wonder what I was thinking then. Was I wondering how I would change into my "going-away" dress, or was I really living in the moment, relishing the thought that I was a bride?

We used to have all kinds of dreams about the future. We used to imagine three kids in the backseat of our car. One by one, they came.



We lost one, too, which no one expects. You don't expect a lot of things.

We couldn't ever have dreamed up the life we have now. We couldn't have imagined the unbearable sweetness of a blond-headed boy on a red tractor in the bright green grass, or a tiny brown-eyed girl in a purple fairy costume, or a boy with a big smile dressed in Batman underwear and yellow boots, holding an umbrella in the rain.

We never could have imagined that our firstborn son would be coming home from college on our 22nd anniversary to celebrate his 18th birthday. That we would own a minivan and have a guest apartment. That we would homeschool our children.

Forget fine china and candlesticks and bath towels. These are the real gifts we should all receive in abundance on our wedding days, wrapped up in tiny boxes that expand with the years: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, gentleness, faithfulness. Perseverance. Compassion. Humility. Hope.


I am so tremendously, on-my-knees thankful that God directed us to one another. And that we listened, in spite of ourselves.

Linked up on Amy's Finer Things Friday