315,569,520!!

It’s our TENTH anniversary!

315,569,520 seconds of life together! Whoa -That’s heckalot seconds!! So many blinks and breaths!!

Seconds of struggles, scratchiness and sweetness. Over 300 million seconds of figuring out how to be our best as a family. Time spent hanging out, making memories, talking about nothing, enjoying quiet on the river, fussing about our finances, fretting about our kids and definitely disagreeing over our sports teams. 💙🧡

In those many moments, we’ve had a few seconds of tears and many seconds of laughter. Blinks and breaths. Tears and laughs.

We’ve had a jillion seconds of God’s grace to us as we celebrated holidays, birthdays, vacations, snow days and other special days. Sunrises and sunsets. Hellos and goodbyes. Many good days. Mostly good days. Not always easy but good.

We had many seconds of growth and change. We’ve praised the Lord for His presence in the stages of junior high, high school, first cars, first dates, proms, graduations and beyond. Our kids grew up and transitioned from young ‘uns to young adults. We’ve been there for them and for each other. God spent each second with us during those chapters.

We’ve had some seconds of praise and gratitude as we’ve walked through various surgeries (hip, jaw, removing: pins, tonsils, a kidney, and fish hooks). We prayed, cried and laughed our way through those seconds too.

We’ve had seconds of ugh and yuck. Moments where the blender got stuck (we’re a blended fam and that gets interesting). Times when our parenting ideas didn’t mix and the smoothie wasn’t smooth. It’s okay — we’re still learning to blend, adding new ingredients and mixing it up.😉 I’ve learned to deal with disagreements. Phewf.

Over 300 million seconds- that’s a lot of hair-dos and hair-don’t-ever-try-that-agains. I’m not just talking about me and my hair. Hahaha. Just look at the pictures.

So as I ponder these seconds, minutes, days, months, and years — what of it? What have I learned?

What have these ten years taught me about God? I’m glad you asked. (You did ask, right?)

#1 I’ve learned God’s timing is good. (Ecc 3:1 There is a time for everything…) If I wrote my story it probably wouldn’t have included 25 years without even a conversation between Chris and me. It was 25 years between our last good bye and our next hello. I may have timed that differently. BUT honestly, God knew I would not have been ready for this life even one second sooner than it played out. (2 Peter 3:8 Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. heehee) #goodtiming

#2 I’ve learned God’s sense of humor is good – never cruel, snarky or at my expense. Just gentle humor. (Lamentations 3:35 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him…) He is entertaining and funny. I love it when I see God’s hand in funny ways. For example, I said I’d never live in Decatur ever again, yet (heehee) here I am and loving it! Laughing with God for bringing me back. Another example of a funny — God is letting me be a softball wife something no one but God knew I dearly wanted to be in my younger years and now I get live that out as a fifty-something wife. That’s funny. The good kind of funny. Chris plays and I love watching & cheering with the other wives. It’s good stuff. There’s many others but I’ll move on. He is funny and kind. #goodhumor

#3 I’ve learned His plans are good. (Isaiah 55:8 [The Lord says] This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours!) I couldn’t have come up with the scenario I’m living out in a thousand thoughts. He plan was better than anything I could have concocted on my own. At 35, I foresaw my 50 year old self as an old, happy, spinster woman, living with 3 dogs, having my son drop in occasionally, having a quaint bookstore (as in You’ve Got Mail haha), working with kids in some capacity, and living in a rustic, ole house (treehouse, maybe) with water nearby. Now that was a crazy, quirky plan!! I’m such a goober. It was just an idea.😁

God’s plan is 1000 times better! Yay for living in a normal house (with no dogs but a fox family in the yard, water nearby, and a grand-dog that visits), having a great husband including his wonderful daughter, his great family AND having a preacher’s kid for a sis-in-law! 💙Yay for having an Auburn son, a daughter living her dreams, my precious extended family always close at heart, an awesome “work family” and of course a well-fitting career working with kids. This is better than happy, sappy fiction! Only God could orchestrate this!!

His timing, His humor, and His plans are the very best.

So on this 10th anniversary celebration week, I bow my head & heart to say “Thank you Lord for Your good timing, Your gentle humor, and Your awesome plan!! You are good. And I am grateful!!”

Christopher— this is us!! 10 years of togetherness. Let’s celebrate!!! Happy 10th dear hubs!! Thanks for changing my life in a million ways, (mostly for the better), thanks for putting up with my quirks and issues, and thanks for being one of the good ones. Just so it doesn’t get too sappy: thanks for being my champion. 😉😂🤣😉 I love you muchness!!! 😍

**I wrote this in June. I published it in a fun TWOsday. Hahaha. June 11, 2021 was our actual anniversary. But 2-2-22 seem like a fun day “two” publish it. No reason. Just random.