The front of our wedding invitation started out “Today I marry my friend…” That was thirty-five years ago today. And yes, I did indeed marry my friend (though he’s much more than that!). In the ensuing years, we have refined that friendship (and the much more!) through many seasons of better and worse, richer and poorer, and sickness and health. We’ve traveled many physical miles, (we’ve moved to California, back to Wyoming, and then to the Virgin Islands, a total of seven or eight addresses), plus when he was long-haul trucking he did over a million safe miles not to mention all the road trips and journeys we’ve enjoyed together. Of course, we’ve also traveled more emotional and mental miles than that as the earth has hurled through space around the sun. We’ve watched our three beautiful children grow into amazing adults and establish lives for themselves – first increasing their number to six as they’ve added spouses and then adding a total of five more ‘newbies’ to our family. We’ve started and ended careers (more than two!). We put on a lot of hard miles on our bodies and hearts hanging out in hospital waiting rooms and ICU facilities and worrying about money and bills. We’ve grimaced at grey hair and wrinkles, stiff joints and a few aches and pains, and we’ve laughed through joyous times of graduations and successes, warm skies and fair breezes.
I’m so thankful for these past thirty-five years, and I’m thankful that the passion, devotion, comfort and security of our marriage and our friendship has grown the way it has. It hasn’t always been easy, but no refining process is. But what we have today is worth every moment of the past 12,783 days. Happy anniversary, Karl! I can’t wait to see what God has for us in the next 35!
