Happy 20th Anniversary To US (on Wednesday)!!!

Wow! What an 80's picture, huh? This was Harold and me while we were dating, probably in late 1988 or early '89. I think by the time this picture was taken, I had graduated high school, but Mom & Dad hadn't moved yet, so I must've been about 16 or just turned 17 here. Wow, again!

For anybody who doesn't know or remember, Harold & I began dating when I was 14 years old. I was a sophomore and he was teaching at OBI and was around 20 at the time. (Sometimes I wonder what my parents were thinking!!!--or what HAROLD was thinking!!!)

We had to keep our relationship a secret since students dating teachers is/was against the rules. Both sets of our parents knew about us, though, so we weren't doing anything horrible. :) On some of our first "dates" we would drive Harold's Ford Pinto that had the front seat taken out and I would hunker down in the floorboard, sometimes with a jacket over me, as we drove out of town so no one would see us together. Boy, it sure was a relief to graduate and be able to be a bit more relaxed!

I was going to Berea College and I honestly could NOT come up with ANYTHING that I really wanted to do with my life other than get married and have a family. I would come home every weekend and just HATE the idea of going back to school. Eventually, we decided to go ahead and marry and I would continue school during the week and still come home on weekends. Just for the record--that's a VERY BAD IDEA! We did that for about a year and a half, when I finally just couldn't do it anymore and Harold gave in and let me quit school in the middle of the first semester of my junior year. (Did I just say he LET me quit? Well, I guess it's true...) So, anyway we married in 1989--20 YEARS ago this week. I was all of 17 years old. He was 23.

In 1994, Katy Lu was born. What a beautiful girl she was--and what a tremendous impact her short little life has had on ours! We spent 5 1/2 months with an angel. What a blessing and privilege.

And I guess God thought we'd had enough of sweet and pink, 'cause then He gave us 3 rambunctious boys!!! John Wesley in 1995, Cody in 1996, and William in 1998. Could it really get any better?

What a journey these 20 years have been! God laid on our hearts, during Katy's life, to do medically fragile foster care. In 2003, He sent us MaKenzie in February and Jared in March. Twins. Still twins--or so they think. They don't know life without each other. They are as truly twins as ever there were. (Well, now they are triplets, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

Also in 2003, God blessed our family by adding Jonas and Lena. That was a really busy year. Our family grew from 3 regular good ole' boys, to 7 kids, 3 with some pretty special needs. (At that time Lena was dealing with lots of delays, although she has really come into her own these past couple years.)

{Oh, this picture makes me long for those "little kid" years--they went by so quickly! I'd like to snatch each of them out of this picture and smooch on their sweet little baby faces!}

In 2006, God sent us Matthew. And boy has he been a blessing--we have learned so much from him! He makes number 3 in our set of triplets. Jared, MaKenzie and Matthew are only a few months apart in age and they are all about the same size, so of course they're triplets. Didn't you know? When I look at this picture and everything it represents, I can't imagine sharing these years, these children and this life with anybody else! I really, truly believe--without a doubt--that our marriage was made in Heaven, ordained from the beginning of time by God, the maker of heaven and earth and I'm so thankful.