A DECADE AGO

April 8th, 2000 at 6:30 in the evening Todd and I said, "I DO." It was a beautiful and very personal ceremony. Our little 3.5 pound Yorkie was our ring bearer, Todd's dad sang a beautiful song to us and Todd surprised me with Cross My Heart by George Strait. Todd is an incredible singer and it was awesome to have him singing to me. Did you see Pure Country? Check it out, George Strait sings it to his love interest in the movie - I bawled! My friend Malorie and her husband shared the Blessings of Grace, a personal biblical exhortation of Christ, husband, wife and marriage. It was all I ever dreamed of. It was not my first marriage, but it was my first marriage since becoming a believer in Jesus Christ. All my hopes were in the fact that Todd and I both loved God and I secretly hoped it would be enough and feared it wouldn't. Little did I know then!

So, much has happened since that day 10 years ago. We relocated to Georgia two months after our wedding. We've moved four times. There have been job changes, disappointments, blessings and 1-2-3-4 AWESOME kids.

Tonight, with four kids at the next table, we will celebrate not only 10 years of marriage, but 10 years of God's faithfulness, blessings, love and provision. I set up a card table in the den with the glasses that were served at our cabin in the mountains at our dinner for two. The clock represents the cabin's name "Time Stops Here" that we stayed in. The one thing not on the table during our honeymoon are the envelopes in the bottom right corner addressed to "mom and dad".

Music from our wedding will be playing while we eat and I asked Todd to bring home a VCR, so together with our precious children we can watch our wedding video.

I still do not know what our future holds (nor will I ever), but I know God has good plans for us, plans to give us a hope and a future. I've had so much revelation in the area of our marriage this last week, I could not possibly fit it in one post. Maybe more on that later, but for now we CELEBRATE!!!

We have been visiting a local church for their marriage series, "I Want a New Marriage" and although simple, it was incredibly powerful. On the third week of the message the pastor's wife shared from her perspective and I gained so much insight and "freedom" from that. You can listen to the podcasts here and I highly recommend it!

The following is printed with permission:

When I told the kids that I was going to take a shower, Isabella said, "Go ahead mommy, you deserve to take a shower after being married to daddy for ten years." Oh, out of the mouth of babes!