Thirteen

Thirteen years, love. Four kids. Six pregnancies. Twenty pets. Eight countries visited. Two countries of residency. Two languages. And a lifetime more of adventure on our horizon.

Yes, thirteen years, my love.

It has been the greatest honor of my life. ❤️

Twelve

Twelve years ago I said the best two word sentence of my life; “I do”.

The greatest adventure of our lives started with those wonderful two words.

Matthew, our twelve year anniversary will be spent for most of the day hours apart; me here caring for our little ladies and you finishing up a training weekend and traveling back. And while our anniversary “get-away” will be celebrated surrounded by our community of little people, it sums up our marriage beautifully. We will always find a way to find us in the middle of all the life happening around us. Albeit an extra hug while my hands are in soapy dish water, scooting closer while we’re both answering emails during a rare quiet moment on the couch, putting my water bottle shot-gun in the car because you are reserving my seat even if we’re transporting someone else who could culturally take that place, or endless other little things you do to love me so well. We find a way to be us. Fight to be us. Together.

It has been twelve amazing years, Love. Four wonderful girls. Four semi-crazy dogs. Eight cats. Six guinea pigs. One turtle. Two foster sons. Living in two countries. Visiting four other countries. Countless hours of sleepless nights, newborn snuggles, toddler teething, growing pains, bad dream comforting and middle of the night vomit wake-up calls. Endless tears of heartbreak and utter joy. And I’d do every single second of it over again just to walk alongside of you through it all.

IMG_5767

You just laying with me to hold my hand on a day I didn’t feel well.

Love you, Babe. Love you so!

And yes, Love, next year in anniversary years we’ll finally be teenagers.

The world can’t handle our kind of cool. 😉 Haha.

IMG_8240

 

*Happy twelve years, Love.*

Here’s to decades more.

Together for Ten

Today marks 10 years of us. TEN! Wow, that flew by so crazy fast!

And while we’re in the thick of a two week training in our efforts to embrace a culture outside of our heritage, I’m thankful that we get a chance today to stop and just celebrate the blessing of being together.

It all started with a conversation about God’s work in the world and here we are running hard after His plan in our lives.

Thank you, Matt, for the years of laughing, crying and singing parody songs through life together – now brought to you in a bi-lingual version. Thank you for helping me learn to be a better follower of Jesus, wife and mom. Thank you for your endless patience and the grace you extend without fanfare or even comment. Just like I prayed with you last night before we went to bed, today I’m thanking God for my best friend and the utter privilege of getting to do life together.

It’s had some crazy turns: 4 girls, 10 years of serving at Miamisburg FBC, seminary, 2 foster boys, 1 baby who won the race to Jesus first, and now here we find ourselves fighting for fluency in a foreign land… all of which because Jesus said go… and He gave us this together.

So here’s to the rest of our lifetime of together!

Love you so.

Happy 10 Years, Love!

38 finished1_2

Covered in Danger and Dirt

Love is a diamond hidden in mountains

covered in danger and dirt.

I’m on the outside, digging and digging.

I’ve seen and I know what it’s worth.

– “Floodplain” by Sara Groves

May our marriage be likewise devoted to pursuing love with reckless abandonment.

And may others be spurred on by it’s overflowing.

-Love you so, babe.

-I know we celebrated then, but happy eight years to you again from this past August. =)

Better Late than Never… Right?

To celebrate Daddy’s birthday he chose to take the kids out of Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch. Talk about a giving Daddy.

 

And we all had an utter blast!!!

P5104575b

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Happy 27th, Love.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

– We adore you.

Wordless Wednesday: Went There

Oh yeah, we went there. Because we can! =)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Can you guess who picked these out? Oh no, not my husband. HA!

And look at this face…

P4204437b

I love this boy. He is “one of us” for sure. 😉

He cracks me up. =D

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑