6.21.2003

Nine years ago I was 20 years old.  I was halfway through college, young in my faith, and very much in love. I married my sweetie on that day.  It was a beautiful day, we married early, and it went so smoothly.  Our pastor who married us was & still is a huge influence in my life and he made the ceremony light and fun and personal and Christ-centered.  We sang as a congregation Come Thou Fount.  We wrote our own vows together & prayed.  I know it is always true looking back but we really had no idea what we were getting into!  And I can say with all honesty that what we "got" is better than anything I could have hoped for.  Nine years later and we have lived in 5 countries, 2 states, had lots of jobs, gone to grad school, moved 7 times, dealt with divorce in our family, prayed for and watched God move in incredible ways to answer prayers, brought Cyrenthia into our home, added Madeline, Simeon, & Anna into our family, and a whole lot more in between.  


If I were to have one word to sum up Andrew & his incredibleness in my life I think it would be to say that he is always so steady. From the moment we met when I was just 14 I can remember seeing this steadiness in him.  And in our marriage and family his steadiness draws us all closer to Christ and directs us toward His will and purposes for us.  He is steady in his walk with the Lord, steady in his prayers, steady in his faithfulness to his job, steady in stewarding God's gifts to us, steady in leading others around him, steady in living a sacrificial life, steady in his friendships and pushing and challenging people to see Christ more fully, steady in his love for his children, steady in his pursuit of their hearts to bring them to Christ, steady in his wisdom to lead us to pursuing adopting our little girl, steady in pursuing me and loving me so well.  He is steady in all the best meanings of the word.

I can't express how blessed I am to have him as my husband and daddy to our children.  He is definitely an unbelievable expression of God's love and kindness to me and I love him like crazy.   


Here is a look back on year 8, if you are curious :)

    Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
 tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
 streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
 call for songs of loudest praise. 
 Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
 sung by flaming tongues above. 
 Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
 mount of thy redeeming love. 

 Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
 hither by thy help I'm come; 
 and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
 safely to arrive at home. 
 Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 wandering from the fold of God; 
 he, to rescue me from danger, 
 interposed his precious blood. 

 O to grace how great a debtor 
 daily I'm constrained to be! 
 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
 bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 prone to leave the God I love; 
 here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
 seal it for thy courts above.