a 15 year journey



15 years ago today I made the best decision of my life.  I made a covenant with this man.  Words were spoken and rings exchanged.  There was a thrill of excitement that day as we stepped into the unknown world of Mr. and Mrs.   And every year that passes, every hill and every valley,  the vows we made that day grow in meaning.

This man.  He knows me.   He knows the real me.  He has seen me at my absolute worst and continually chooses to love me no matter what.  The depth of our relationship is something I could not have even imagined 15 years ago....  I don't think even one year ago.  When you meet your forever life partner at the age of 18, you get to grow up together.  There are pieces of the person we first met still around, but we have also grown and changed significantly over the years.

When I met Kevin in the fall of 1996,  I had just arrived at college.  If you had asked me then what the future held, I would have told you that I was going to be a nurse and raise my family serving communities somewhere in Africa.  One of the reasons I chose this college was they had a program to specifically train a student for this purpose.

I have this quote in the front of my Bible from college...

Commit your way to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Sometimes your "loves" may be put in the background for God to work His will in your life.  But by committing to the Lord, in the end He will use your "loves" in amazing ways that you couldn't have even imagined before.   

I spent the summer before my senior year of college in Togo.  I went to help in a hospital run by missionaries way out in the country.   Instead of helping, though, I found myself so sick that I couldn't even get out of bed.  It was during those hours of lying in bed, so far from home, that God spoke clearly to my heart.   He was calling me to be Kevin's wife.  Due to Kevin's dependance on modern medicine to stay alive, I knew saying "yes" to being his wife meant saying "no" to ever living someplace like where I was currently staying.  It was a crossroad.  And I have no regrets.

God called my husband to live in an area where we meet people from all over the world.  I spent years caring for them as a nurse and now building relationships as I stay home with our children.  We have traveled the world together to bring home our babies.  I don't just clock in and clock out as a nurse caring for children... I get to live it out 24/7.  God has used my "loves" in amazing ways and it all started with saying yes to marrying this wonderful man.  A man who loves God with all his heart, desires above all else to live out his faith,  sacrifices daily for his family, and loves us unconditionally.

I know that what we have is rare.  And today my heart is overflowing with thankfulness.

My grandfather recently passed away at the age of 92.  He and my grandmother also married young.  It seems like Kevin and I have already experienced so much life together.  But when I think about my grandparents, I realized we have only just finished our first lap.  I am sure that road ahead will be filled with amazing adventures because we have determined to live everyday, to run hard and to reach the finish line with no regrets.  If the next 15 years are anything like this last 15, I know that they won't be easy.... but I also know that they will be wonderful because of who is running them beside me.






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