21 Years of Together

Today Shaun and I celebrate 21 years of marriage and what feels like a lifetime (in a good way!) of being together.

I think of all the days and months stacked up in those 21 years and my heart fills to overflowing. To know, day in and day out that he's shown up and loved....to think of the countless moments that have made up the years...to re-define romance again, and again.

Recently a nurse at the chemo place was asking how Shaun was, since she hadn't be there for a while. I smiled and told her what a warrior he's been, what an incredible caregiver, what selfless love I've received day after day, what an incredible burden he's shouldering without a word of complaint.

She told me she was so happy to hear that. She said what often happens during a trauma like cancer is that the marriage falls apart. Naively, that surprised me but it also made me so very thankful for the man who so bravely stands by my side. Cancer has brought us closer together, causing us to cherish our days together, living in full awareness of how fleeting life is. Today, after all these years we appreciate more and more that we simply have each other.

Shaun is God's gift to me and I'm thankful. So thankful.

Celebrating Sixteen

I can be there for you when it can't get much harder
I can cover your head when life starts to rain
I can hold on tight when it feels like you're falling
I can bread-crumb the path when you've lost your way
I can make you laugh when the whole world is crying
I can build you up when you're broken in shame
But if all that we do is absent of Jesus
Then this "so called" love is completely in vain

By Bart Millard
Mercy Me

Shaun, Thank you for following Jesus with me these 16 years.  I love you like crazy!!  Happy Anniversary!

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,

and they will become one flesh.

Genesis 2:24

Celebrating 14 Years

Today we celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. First, I need to clear up that no, I am not old enough to have been married for 14 years...I was a child bride. I was 19 and Shaun was 23. We had dated for four years and had the blessing of our parents. Ok, so I was of age to be married but sometimes it just shocks me that I'm old enough to even remember 14 years ago, let alone to have been married that long.

It was a beautiful, sunshiny day.

Our wedding party...L to R (my sister Bethany, friend Tim, my sister Amy, best man Clint, maid of honor Shelva, Us, Shaun's sister Sarah, friend Jason, my Aunt Bonnie, friend Richard)

My view of marriage when I was 19 was that a wedding day was much like a car coasting from the top of a hill. I thought that day must be the height of a couple's love for each other and hopefully they had built up enough steam to last the duration of their marriage until "death parted them". How foolish I now realize that thinking was! On the contrary, when done right, love continues to grow throughout a marriage. I love Shaun so, so much more than I did on May 30, 1994.

(us at a Boston game last year...a little older, a little wiser and more sure of God's sovereignty than ever)

(taken in Aruba, where we were celebrating this time last year)

Everyday we stand in amazement at God's goodness in our lives. He has been so good to us...God truly knew what He was doing when He orchestrated our lives together. Shaun, Happy Anniversary. I love you!