Twenty-nine Years, 364 days

Twenty-nine years, 364 days ago today, we had our wedding rehearsal. Location: Blendville Christian Church, Joplin, MO. What exciting times those were. I had 4 attendants: my sister,Chris was my MOH, my two girlfriends from college were my bridesmaids (Janet & Pam), and Don's cousin, Erin, was my flowergirl. My piano teacher from childhood played the organ, and my dear friend from high school sang (Marilyn). It was a beautiful wedding. Small, simple, but beautiful. If I could figure out how to scan pictures, I'd put up a few from my wedding. Perhaps I should get Meg to help me figure it out... Don & I paid for our wedding, most of it anyway. I paid for my dress & vail, Don paid the gratuities for the pastor & the church. Mom was going to pay for the flowers, but after sensing that she couldn't afford what I wanted, I cancelled the flowers and opted for just greenery & bows. We also had aisle candelabras that we rented from the church. Very pretty.... Dick Youkey was our pastor, and he performed the ceremony. We knew he would be good, especially when he showed up wearing a big Texan belt buckle & cowboy boots. :-) Sad to say, he died from cancer a couple of years after we married. I think if he were still alive, he'd be very proud of Don & me....

Don & I were "college" poor..... couldn't afford a honeymoon. So, instead, we spent our wedding night at the Holiday Inn in Joplin, and the next night we were at Crown Center in Kansas City. The cool thing about that was the pool area..... you started swimming inside the building, and then you swim under a bridge and voila! We were outside, with snow all around, in a completely heated pool, with so much steam rising from the water you couldn't see across the pool. Fun times. We did eat dinner at the Top of the Crown that evening. Fancy Schmancy restaurant, much like we were never accustomed to eating in. I didn't exactly know how to handle myself.... but we had fun. The restaurant floor was a turntable and rotated slowly, so you could get a different view of Kansas City all the time. Fun... That restaurant isn't there anymore; been replaced with a steakhouse, not as classy.

When Don & I were in college, we used to joke that we were going to grow old together. Well, we're certainly doing it! I can't believe 30 years has gone by so quickly! Where did it all go? I savor every one of my memories. For the most part, we have had a wonderful marriage. We have had our moments, like everyone else, but because we have Christ centered in our lives, we have overcome so many obstacles. We have overcome infertility, (yes, I'm infertile and was told we would never conceive children), we've overcome financial difficulties of a magnitude I never thought we'd deal with, we have overcome cancer in both of our lives, we are overcoming another hideous disease that is affecting both of our lives, we overcame being put through a federal trial and losing everything we owned with the exception of our house, we have overcome the death of two of our parents, Don's dad & my mom, and we miss them greatly. The older Don gets, the more he is becoming his dad, not only in appearance, but in behavior and voice. It's so weird.... And this summer, we experienced possibly the worst fears, losing our daughter & granddaughter. But God is so good and he brought them both back to health.

We have had many, many blessings in our lives... Let me list some:
1 ~ we have two beautiful daughters, both conceived naturally and with alot of help from God... we have one more baby that currently is in heaven.
2 ~ We have been homeowners since Meghan was 10 months old, as a result from a car accident that we were involved in. Dyan & I were both injured, and the settlement gave us our down payment.
3 ~ I have been able to be a stay at home mom for the entire time we were raising the girls. Talk about a blessing! I wanted children so badly, and when we finally gave birth to Dyan, I could not imagine sending her to childcare so I could have my "career". My career from that point on was being a mommy. I've never regretted it, not one day, and have never looked back.
4 ~ We have been blessed to take many, many camping trips while living in California, with lots of our close friends. Many happy memories from those trips.
5 ~ We have been blessed to be part of some wonderful churches, and to be able to serve in such wonderful churches. Some of our favorite pastors were Ben Merold from Eastside Christian Church in Fullerton, California, "Chief" from Chino California, Ward Tanneburg from Valley Christian Church in Dublin, California, Tim Pusey, probably our favorite, from First Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City, Missouri. We do miss him, but are enjoying our new pastor, Brad Estep.... We've been part of ministries over the years: I ran preschool ministries, women's ministries, led singing & played my 12 string guitar, bible studies, Don's served on boards of elders, boards of deacons, run the sound recording, I've taught Sunday School since 1981, and my children's choir ministry since 1986. Wow, we've been busy! I'm so grateful that church involvement has been such a big part of our lives. Without that involvement and our relationship building with Jesus Christ, I don't know how we would have made it through some of the obstacles thrown our way...
6 ~ We have two terrific son in laws, who both love our daughters. I prayed for them ever since our girls were little, that God would choose for our girls, mates that are godly men, being raised in Christian homes. God has answered our prayers.
7 ~ We are blessed with 3 wonderful, adorable, gorgeous inside & out grandchildren.
8 ~ We have a nice home, and have lived here for 13 years now. That is the longest we've ever lived in one house!

We have had a great life together. I hope it can continue on for 30 more years, that is unless the Lord comes back first!

Tomorrow night, we will celebrate our anniversary as we have the past 10 years or so.... a nice dinner at Ruths Chris Steakhouse on the Plaza. We love that place, but can't regularly afford to eat there... $$$ but so yummy, and special, and intimate.

I will make sure we get pics from our dinner tomorrow. I searched for a picture of Don & me, but apparently they got lost when my laptop crashed while sitting in the hospital with Meg last August....

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And that's my life so far...