Anniversary Weekend

Yesterday, Randy and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary... by taking three of our kids to the mall. Although that seems a tad odd, perhaps it was fitting, since we took Brandon on almost every "pre-marriage" date we ever went on. We started dating when Brandon was just a few weeks old and we took him everywhere with us. I will forever cherish the nights that we would lay him down on a blanket in the back seat of Randy’s Firebird and sit in Carlisle’s MJ Mall parking lot for hours just talking about our lives and our future together.

Times have for sure changed.

I assured you, there was no time for intimate conversation at the mall last night. Well, unless you count Nick advising me that, “that’s a grandma shirt, you can’t buy it or I won’t be seen at Youth with you.” Emily begging for an Aero shirt, “but Mom, look, this one really will fit me.” or Mia explaining to me that she “needs a cell phone.”

Okay, so I did tell Randy that he looked beastly in the black Aero shirt he bought for $7. Does that count as intimate?

Just like we do most years, we’ll celebrate our anniversary a few days late. On Sunday, we’ll sneak away for the day, have a picnic by a lake, and talk about our future together – about God’s future for us. If the last 17 years have taught us nothing else, it has taught us that it’s really not about our plan anyway.

I love how Eugene Peterson translates Proverbs 19:21, “We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails.”

Eight years ago, we had a well mapped out plan for our future on the table. Then God tipped our little table over, gave us a different map, and sent us out on a new journey. An incredibly, amazing, but sometimes scary and frustrating journey; a journey that has forever changed our lives.

Randy, I can’t wait to see what the next 17 years of this journey together brings. I am so proud of you and Godly man you are. I love you for all the big things and all the little things. You are an incredible husband and father. I love that after all these years, you still remember to hold my hand and open my doors. I know God has an amazing plan for us and can’t wait to see it unfold. There is no one I’d rather take this journey with. And just for the record, you do look beastly in your new shirt. I love you like crazy!