Today we've been married 17 years!!!!

It is hard to believe that we were married 17 years ago tonight at 7:00 pm. My mom is the wedding director at our church (20 yrs this year), so she obviously wanted it to all be perfect.... and perfect it was. I felt like a princess, wearing my mom's wedding dress from 1961, walking down the aisle to my prince. It was absolutely beautiful, with 560 family and friends in attendance, 10 bridesmaids, 10 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, 1 ring bearer and a minister. That day had been "a long time coming" because we had dated for 3 years and 1 week! As you can see from the picture above, we were so young, 23 yrs old, to be exact! On your wedding day, as you are reciting your vows, that you've dreamt of saying since you were little, you don't really know ALL that you are vowing to, do you, because you don't know what the future holds or what trials/tribulations you would face in the years ahead, after all, how could you? All we knew was that we loved each other, that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, and we felt like we had found the Lord's best - each other! We had the "perfect" dating relationship, we saw each other every Sunday morning and Sunday night at church, Tuesday night for church visitation, Wednesday night for church and then we'd go out either Friday or Saturday night, of course, always getting to my doorstep 30 minutes prior to my 11:00 pm curfew so we could spend those last few minutes gazing into each others eyes and saying goodbye over and over, because we'd have to wait at least a day or two until we would see each other again, oh those were the days weren't they? We had both grown up in Christian homes so the Lord was first in our lives and first in our dating relationship, therefore there was no doubt He would be first in our marriage and home. As anyone who is married knows, marriage is harder than dating. Dating is easy, fun and there is really no responsibility especially when you still live at home with your parents. On the other hand, with marriage comes the union of two people, two families, love, respect, responsibility, commitment, faithfulness and unselfishness, and at the same time it can often bring, by our own self-doing, heartache, disappointment, separation, stress, debt, infertility issues , tragedy and unforeseen deaths. Obviously you don't think about these things when you say "I do" and fortunately not, because that could scare anyone to the point of not getting married. Although we have experienced all that marriage brings with it, the good and bad, we made it through together and we are now so thankful for the "difficult times" because it has made us the strong couple we are today which overflows into the wonderful home life we share. We are so in-love with each other, we are so thankful for the 2 "miracle" boys we have and for our precious unborn "miracle" baby boy, Tristan. The Lord has brought us a long way in 17 years and we look forward to many more years of happiness as we travel this life together, side-by-side and hand-in-hand.

Ruth 1:16-17 says: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God, Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried, The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."