anniversary journey

28 years ago i began a journey. it actually began the day before with a wedding. my wedding. my son had turned one on the 12th and then on the 13th i married my husband. we had met 4 years earlier during a family vacation and had corresponded through letters for 4 years. i had seen him only once during that time, a few months before the wedding. we had each went on with our lives but continued to keep in touch.

i believe life for me needed to change and marrying him was the ticket. it would take me states away from what i knew and away from from my family - but boy was it worth it! i had no idea what was in store.

so, 28 years later i'm thinking this morning of the u-haul we rented and loaded (complete with diaper pail) and the journey that began.

we travelled for over 2 days, and i learned from the beginning that we had trouble conversing with each other. the first night we ended up in some out of the way place at some motel with a one year old needing to be fed. my husband had made a wrong turn. he went out and got scrambled eggs for our son to eat and brought it back to the room. me - i longed for a "holiday inn" thinking it was like the "ritz". the second night we thought we were at a holiday inn only to find we had taken the wrong driveway and ended up at some other place. whatever.... on the third day we ended up at our new home, a small apt.

life went on for a number of years getting to know each other, talk of divorce entered the conversation a number of times, once even suggested by a "minister", but, thank God it never came to be.

years later i would become a christian, born again by the grace of God and i became a new creature. we now had three children. and then depression hit with such a force that i became incapable of functioning and needed to be hospitalized, not once, but many times since. this particular journey would take detours, but would be with us for a very long time. it has only been within the last year , thank God, that a sustained healing has come, and even with healing there are occasional road blocks that seem to stop me.

now, 28 years later, i think about the journey. we've been through a lot, i frequently think my husband has been through the roughest part (being on the recipient end of my moods, etc), but know that we both have travelled. by God's grace and goodness we have perservered and are celebrating. i never thought i'd be married this long. i wasn't familiar with marriages that did not use divorce as an option. pretty much all i knew was that married people didn't really like each other. God has shown me a different way.

when my oldest son was married in 2004 they had dancing at the reception. at one point they had couples on the dance floor and and asked couples to leave the floor when their years of marriage were counted out (1, 5, etc.). i was excited when the last two couples were my husband and i and my my daughter-in-law's' parents. they beat us out :-) but what a legacy; to know both their parents had "stuck it out" so to speak.

we are unaware of what will actually lay ahead in a journey - only God knows that. i'm so thankful i'm on this one. a savior, a husband, 3 adult children, a daughter-in-law and many many things learned. i thank God for this trip.