Dave was supposed to be writing this blog but he’s down and out for the count.  I think maybe there have been 4 times in our 13 years of marriage that he has been taken out of commission due to sickness.  The past few days have been one of those times.  And as all 3 children we have are down and out as well, I sit and am thankful that I have been spared (for now) as I try and take care of our family.  Try to have patience as I nurture them the best I can.  A huge challenge but also a huge awareness of the need and role of being a wife and mother.

Seeing Dave this way is a simple reminder of choosing to love in sickness and in health.  And as our whole staff has been reflecting on their love stories I too reflect on ours.  I know for sure that my story will be different than his.  When we tell it, we have always have our two perspectives.  But the good news is that we both won in the end.  I think I had a bigger win but I wont’ let him know that.

I wanted to add some pictures.  They are a bit blury but you get the point.

This is who I met my Freshman year of college.  He was 2 years older than me. He asked me out on one date and then did not talk again for a whole year. Needless to say I don’t think either of us were impressed.  They used to call him Brad Pitt… ha!

Then my sophomore year, he cut his hair. 

Then I started to notice.  My roommates started hanging out with his roommates and I started finding myself in his “social network”.  Mango Men.  Very interesting people.  You can tell a lot from a person by their friends.  They intrigued me. Dave has always and still does has the most amazing friends. 

EVERYONE wanted us to be together.  Most people said we looked like brother and sister.  I really enjoyed Dave’s company and friendship but really did not think of it being any more.  I knew he liked me a lot. (he won’t admit that) I knew I just thought of us as friends.  I remember sitting in a Denny’s  having the define the relationship talk.  I told him that I really just wanted to be “friends”.  I recall him looking back at me rather odd as if I was crazy to think it was ever anything more than that.  He basically let me know in that moment that he never thought of me more than a friend (which was a deliberated and planned lie that truly worked a number on me) I felt silly and awkward.  He had a  game plan going on.  After that time since I knew we were just “friends” we started hanging out and spending time together that much more.  I loved time with Dave. 

Time passed and our friendship grew.  I felt really lucky to have such a friend but I never thought of things past that.  Then one spring, he went away on a missions trip and I went to visit family for our spring break.  During that week away something happened.  I had one of those awakening moments and my mind now knew something my  heart already had known.  I loved this man with everything that I was.  Time away had put things into perspective for me. I could not wait for the week to end.   I was nervous and wondering if he felt the same way.  I had assumed once that he did and was proven wrong. 

I was waiting for him on his doorstep when he returned.  I asked him if I could take him to dinner.  I shared my heart and he shared his.  He had loved me from the moment we first met. From that day on we have been together.

I really do sit back and wonder what I ever did to deserve a man who not only would love me unconditionally but would so inspire me personally and us as a couple and now a family to live a life on mission together.  Who would not only lead us on our dreams but also support me on mine as well as we live out this beautiful dance.  Some people say marriage is the hardest thing you will ever do.  I don’t disagree with that statement because I know for a lot of people it is.  But for me, for us,  marriage has been one of the easiest and most natural things we have ever done.  He makes me so much better and I think I make him better too.  We are both secure in who we are as individuals and when united as a team some days I do think it’s possible for us to take on almost anything.  It’s been a wonderful life.  I hope we are only a fraction into the time we have for living it.

The day we married….

13 years and 3 kids later…