And 27 wonderful years later, here we are!!!

 

 

It was a whirlwind courtship.  I was going to London on a study-abroad program and was going to be gone from January – May.  We started dating in December, three weeks before I was leaving, and both of us knew, instantly, that this was something worth exploring.  I left for London and (in those pre-cell phone, pre-internet, pre-texting days) we had to “date” via snail-mail letters that took FOREVER to go from Houston to London.

I returned to Houston the end of May and within two weeks, we were engaged.  When I told people I was engaged, the response almost universally was, “To whom?  Someone you met in London?”  And I’d reply, “No, remember that guy I was dating before I left?  Him.” 

We planned on being engaged 18 months before having a December wedding.  You’ve heard the expression, “Man plans, God laughs”?  Well, He certainly laughed.  Due to circumstances and situations that are too convoluted to fully explain, I found myself pushed to the breaking point and I didn’t really know how I was going to make it until December.  One Wednesday in April, my husband (then fiancée) called me and said, “What are you doing Saturday?”  I said, “Nothing, why?” and he said, “Let’s get married.  I talked to the preacher, the church is available … let’s get married on Saturday.”  My response?  “Yes, let’s!”  And we did.  J  And let me say, when you move a wedding up from December to April and give everyone 72 hours notice, *everyone* assumes you’re pregnant.  Which I wasn’t, but that didn’t stop a lot of people from wondering.

By all counts, our marriage shouldn’t have worked.  We were young, we were broke, we were both in college, we had precious little family support (none at all from my side), we barely knew each other when we got engaged, the reasons why our marriage should have failed are many.  But it succeeded.  Why?  God.  That’s all I can attribute it to.  He meant for us to be together and, as clichéd as it sounds, love can conquer all.  We love each other, we were both 100% committed to this marriage, we put God first and we made it work.

 

 

 

And today, 27 years later, it’s still working.  We still love each other, deeply and passionately, we still put God first and we still sometimes wonder how and why it works.  But it does.  J 

The years have brought us great joy, great heartache, immeasurable sorrow and complete joy.  We have born children, we have miscarried children, we have stood at gravesites of loved ones, we have watched our children walk the aisle in marriage, cross the stage at graduation, get baptized and give their lives to the Lord.  We have defeated cancer, we have come back from a stroke, we have overcome financial reverses and we have watched our precious children leave our home and go into the world and make their way.

I can’t think of anyone else I’d want to be by my side as we start this new phase of our life; our empty-nest phase.  And my prayer is that we will have decades more together. 

And you know what?  After 27 years, it’s still fun.  He still makes me laugh, he still is a source of comfort and strength and he still makes my heart flutter.  But mainly, it’s fun.  Life is an adventure, a journey and it’s a thousand-times better to go on that journey with someone who makes you laugh, who holds your hand and gives you comfort, who can reassure you with just a smile and who knows you better than anyone in this entire world, and who still thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread. 

I will say that, out of everyone in the church that April day 27 years ago, I think he and I were the only two people who thought we’d actually succeed.  And I think I can be forgiven if I think to myself, “I guess we showed ‘em, didn’t we?” when I remember how I was told that we’d never make it to our first anniversary.  So yeah, to that nay-sayer who told me he’d leave me and then I’d be “stuck with a handful of snot-nose brats and on welfare” … I think time has proven you wrong.