Twenty years

Married for half my life to my best friend! I love him so much... he is *exactly* what I need. Thank you, God, for allowing me to be Matt's wife! I am *so* very thankful! :)

Last week, Matt & I had a nice getaway in North Carolina to celebrate our 20th anniversary. It was really fun to get away, just the two of us, but it was very strange to be away from the kids. When they were younger, a getaway seemed more urgent, more of a need. But now that we have kids old enough to watch the younger ones, we are more free to have a date regularly, so it didn't feel the same as our 10th anniversary trip in that way, if that makes any sense.

I think, for me, remembering the many things that had happened in the 10 years between our 10th and 20th anniversaries was mind boggling. Especially since the second 10 years seemed much faster than the first 10 years! Since we celebrated our 10th anniversary, we had three babies, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had it removed, we left Youth for Christ and moved to Arizona, Matt started working with dialysis patients, and we began renting out our Michigan home as a vacation rental.

Wow! These next ten years will likely have many other changes, too. Just thinking of the ages our kids will be is shocking... 26, 23, 19, 17 and almost 16. In less than ten years we may very well have one or two married children and a couple of grandchildren!

Time marches on...

Anyway, here are some comparison shots for you and a slideshow I put together of our anniversary trip, to the song "God gave me you" by Dave Barnes, which has been running almost continuously in my mind these past few weeks as I think of the blessing of being Matt's wife.

May 5, 1990~Oakfield Baptist Church, Rockford, MI

May 5, 2010~Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

Slideshow personalized with Smilebox