Joshua and I have been married for eight years today.  I’d like to say we’ve learned a lot about marriage, family, and each other in that time.  And we have.  But I still think we’ve got a lot to learn.  It’s easy for me to think, “Wow!  Eight years is a long time!”  It is, I guess.  Until I look at the marriages he and I both admire the most.

We are both blessed to still have one set of grandparents each.  His mother’s, my father’s.  Both sets  married their childhood sweethearts.  All of them grew up during the Great Depression and WWII.  They started their married lives during the fifties and raised children alongside Flower Power and Vietnam.  They gave their families everything and are blessed now to live in homes they own because they understood budgets and finance before Dave Ramsey.  Between them they have twelve grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and they share the three sweetest: Madelynne, Annabelle, and Amelia.

Each set has been married for at least sixty years, but has known their partner for nearly eighty.  That is ten times how long Joshua and I have been married.  And we only knew each other for two years before.  Suddenly, eight years just seems like a drop in the bucket.  I hope and pray that we’ll reap the blessings of our grandparents.  To sit on the front porch of a home I truly own, to have grandchildren crawling across my lap to his, to know he loves me more now than he did on July 20, 2002 will be the ultimate anniversary.

Eight years is just the beginning of our marriage.  There is so much wonder yet to come.

There are no words for the loss of a child.  There are no actions that can take away that pain.  I wish there was.  I wish I could hold my friend close and just for a moment absorb some of her grief so that she did not have to feel it.  But I cannot.  All I can do is love her family, pray for their coming days, offer condolences that seem so cold in comparison to the warmth of their son. 

Hold your children a little tighter tomorrow.  Thank God they are shared with you for one more day. 

Totally stole this from Julia over at Black Tag Diaries, but she gave permission, and since I just posted some heavy stuff, thought you folks would appreciate the lighter.

1) If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? On a lakeshore in the mountains down a windy gravel road.

July 1, 2010

Except God is never random.  He knows from the “get-go”, as my mama would say, and He never gasps or grips the arm of the chair in shock or widens his eyes.  He already knew and sometimes, I think, He just leans back and nods and says, “Told you to trust me.”

Tonight I was reminded just how perfect and indescribable He is.  Too much of my life lately has been spent questioning, wondering, waiting impatiently for Him to tell me why bad things happen to good people and why He won’t work on my schedule and how can he let tragedy come into the lives of people we love?

Grace.  Faith.  Hope.

My daughters’ names were not chosen randomly.  They were chosen as statements of tangible evidence that these are the gifts of God.  He is not random.

He knew my friend would deliver her baby girl several weeks early.  And because He can see the end and we can only see the now, He orchestrated it perfectly.

It’s a girl.  Did you know the lungs of baby girls develop faster than that of boys so they thrive more quickly?

They had already made peace and plans for her to not return to work.  She wanted to go back but this was the path chosen for them.  And now she knows why.

Some of us are cut out to parent strong-willed children, rebellious children, gifted and handicapped children….

Some of us are called to parent preemies, so fragile and yet, so strong.

So many steps along the way that might have left them wondering why me? why us? why now?

Now they know.  The reason lies in a tiny bed, in a big hospital, on a beautiful summer night.

She wasn’t early.  She was right on time.  God is never random.

Welcome to the world, Amelia Noel!  Those fireworks in the night sky?  Of course they’re for you.  We’re all very glad you’re here.  And we’re praying for you and your mommy and your daddy.  Thank You God for baby girls.

Today is Joshua’s 30th birthday.  I feel the need to rub this in a bit since I hit the big 3-0 a mere 48 hours after Amelia’s delivery and therefore, it was glossed over by everything else going on in our lives.  Except that Joshua likes to remind me I am older than him and he’s pretty sure that 4 months is a significant amount of older-ness.

I think it just feeds his ego to know he wooed an older woman.

But today’s his birthday and I wanted to take a few moments to let the world (of this blog) know why he’s an incredible husband and father and person.  And since I never got around to a Father’s Day blog, I figure this can also suffice for that.

30 for 30 Reasons We Love Joshua:

1.  He has A LOT of patience (this is a blessing and a curse. I’m pretty sure his patience is why he’s still married to me, but also why we were given three girls, because man, nothing tries your patience like a whiny little girl).
2.  He doesn’t expect me to keep our house as clean as his mother kept theirs.
3.  He will stagger out of bed in the middle of the night to put Annabelle back in hers or get Amelia if I’m too tired.  Of course, I have to poke him pretty hard to get him to wake up, but he does!
4.  He puts me back together when I fall apart.
5.  He not only tolerates my crazy, loud, insane family, but I think he might actually like them.
6.  He likes my friends and encourages me to spend time with them.
7.  He thinks I’m funny.
8.  He believes in me.
9.  He loves his grandparents and mine and recognizes how special it is that our girls spend time with their great-grands.
10.  He has an amazingly loyal work ethic.  If he agrees to do something, it’s not getting done halfway.
11.  His favorite Wii partner is Madelynne (he will never admit this, but she believes it is true).
12.  He has taught the girls to play computer games, a quiet activity that can entertain for at least an hour.
13.  He sings silly songs to the girls when he rocks them goodnight….well he did until we moved the rocking chair to Amelia’s room.
14. He’s starting to buy into my coupon craze.
15.  He’s always rather eat out than eat leftovers, but he eats the leftovers anyway.
16.  He is the best giver of baths because he plays games with the girls to get them to wash their hair.
17.  He makes the most awesome cinnamon rolls in the world.
18.  Someday we’re going to have enough money/faith/craziness to let him start his own business.
19.  Everyday he drives the 20-year-old Honda Civic (without AC) to and from work so I can drive the much cooler (in the literal sense) minivan.
20.  He is an awesome man of God who truly lives what he believes.
21.  He will understand that the goal for this blog was 30 reasons he’s an awesome husband and father but because I am so distracted and muddled by our kids, I have only made it to 20 over a period of 3 days and now I’m stopping.

Love you Joshua!