What an Anniversary!

Yesterday Rick and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. Well, "celebrated" is a relative term in that we "celebrated" in Hawaii for a full week last week so last night we "celebrated" by doing yard work and laundry. You know you have been married for a long time when you are perfectly happy with that! Of course, had we not just come off an amazing anniversary celebration in one of the most beautiful places on earth, we might not have been as satisfied to have just a normal day.

I could go on and on about what a great husband Rick is, but I do that every Friday in my Rick Rocks posts. So, instead, I thought I would just share a little something about how we began.

In 2000 I was a divorced single mom practicing law in Springfield, Missouri. Rick was a divorced man working as a project manager at a company in Joplin, Missouri. He had just come out of a bad relationship. We lived about an hour and a half away from each other. We weren't in the best of places in our lives, but were recovering and rebuilding.

We met one weekend at a church event called Camino. You know the "love at first sight thing"? Well, I just knew immediately upon meeting him that he was the one. He was the one God had planned for me all along. We started dating. But, it never felt like dating. Honestly we just started living a life together from the first moment on. That's why we were engaged three months later, moving to Oklahoma three months after that and getting married two months after that.

We got married on a Saturday morning. It was a small wedding, with just family and close friends. Then we invited all of our guests to our favorite coffee bar for coffee and dessert as our reception.

On our little program for the wedding, Rick wrote the following that was printed on the back:

A story of us ...

It's very difficult to write about your life sometimes. You don't want to include all of the mistakes and bad choices you made along the way, but we would like to share a small story of us for you, our family and friends ..

This is a short story because we only met a few months ago on October 17, 2000. But God had a plan for us long before that day. You see, He was allowing us to live our lives as we saw fit and according to "our" plans. And we were not doing a very good job of living our lives under those plans. That was only until the point that we (not knowing each other) each decided to give up on our own works and let God take over. At that point our lives began to evolve around His plan and not ours. The two of us met through a mutual friend ... Jesus. When we each began to walk on His path, we looked over and saw the other walking on the same path and in the same direction. In our past, He led us through similar difficult times and helped us through "our" decisions, good or bad. Then when He got us on the same path, he steered us together so that we wouldn't have to walk the path alone. He knew that we could make the journey much stronger if we were together.

What happened to us cannot be explained to the unbelieving heart, for sometimes even we find it very mysterious. All that we can tell you is, we are here because we allowed Him to be in control of our lives and it is so much better than what either one of us could have ever imagined. We will not give up on His plan for our life together and we fight everyday with our own souls on who is in control ... but it can be done. Never give up on that!

Our story is not over .. it has just begun. And we cannot wait to see what the next chapter holds. We are so happy that you will be there to share in the unfolding of our story ...

... to be continued ...

Like any road or path, ours has been straight and flat at times and easy to walk with beautiful scenery. At other times it has been very curvy, with some steep hills to climb and then some treacherous declines to follow. There have been slippery rocks to balance on, debris to trip over and trees and branches so thick we could hardly push our way through them. There have also been other small paths tempting us to get off the one God has prepared for us. Marriage is a struggle, there is no question about that.

Oh, but the reward and benefit of walking that path together, no matter how difficult! When you get to see the sights together, nothing is better!


Rick, thank you for a wonderful journey so far. We have written many chapters in our story, and we are always starting new ones. I can't wait to read it when it is complete.

I love you!
Happy Anniversary (one day late!) .. Hey, I've been doing your laundry!