30 Years Ago

This is a scan of my original copy of our vows, written out by our pastor for us to memorize. John's copy was lost water skiing the day of our wedding, I think :)


Long ago and far away...

I was just 17 (close to 18) and John was 20.

We have come through a lot together... some of it I was not sure we would survive... but we did. There is no way in the world we would have made it without the Lord, who saved us from our sins, and many times saved us from ourselves.
We have also had LOTS of good times in the past thirty years... No one knows me better, and I sure wouldn't do this marriage thing with anyone else.

Back when, I never saw us being thirty years old , let alone being married that long. I sure never saw myself as a Pastor's wife with 14 kids... I pretty much thought we would just party our time away, lots of rock concerts, camping, canoeing, frisbee golf and beer ball... I actually saw us as organic farmers, with a nice crop of "homegrown" to smoke around the campfire at night. We were clueless about real life.
How God works... We have both changed so much, and I am happy to have those early years behind us... I wouldn't be 18 again for anything. It was a ton of fun, but like I said, we had not a clue about real life.
When I see couples married less than 10 years I think about all that adjusting that is behind us... It is during those early years when you REALLY find out about putting your own pride and selfish desires aside for the common good of your marriage... and who wants to do that? We have found out that there are lots of times that love alone is not going to get us through... It is the commitment. Marriage is hard work and that's for sure.

But here is the best part of being married 30 years... MOST of that hard work is behind us and we are living in the happy times of having made it together. We are looking at growing old together now, and although John is so much older than me (couldn't resist) I am excited about what's ahead for us in the next 30 years together :)
I love you John... Happy Anniversary!