Five Years....Lord Willing -- Many More To Come!

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery -- but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:31-33

This past Friday (June 5), Marc and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. I guess we really didn't officially celebrate our anniversary until last night (June 6), but nonetheless, it was our anniversary on Friday.

We were married at Hope Community Church in Andover, KS. It was a beautiful day, and many people came to witness our union -- for which we are very grateful for all of the guests. Our reception was at the Mid-American All Indian Center in Wichita. We had food. Some friends of our's as well as my father spoke about us and gave us well wishes. This will not surprise many of you, but Marc had requested we have Pepsi at the reception, and so, we did (as well as some other choice favorites). We had a "real" wedding cake, but we also served a DQ cake (there's another surprise). Our punch was DQ's slush drink -- Arctic Rush (formerly called Mr. Misty).

Two days later (June 7), we left for a cruise in the Caribbean. It was fun and relaxing.

Looking back over the last five years, we have had many celebrations as well as some sad times.

First, the celebrations!!!!! -- in no particular order
1) New jobs
2) Triumphs in jobs
3) Searching for a new church together and ultimately ending up at Grace Community Church. At this church, we have made many hopefully lifelong friends. And, most importantly, we have grown closer in our relationships with Christ together.
4) Two nieces have been born -- Grace and Natalie
5) Taken MANY trips together (Marc and I share a love of travel)
6) LUKE -- Need I say more?

Sad Times....
1) Shortly after we were married, Marc's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, it was diagnosed early enough, before it had spread. After surgery and follow-up radiation, she is cancer free.
2) Marc's dad had a minor stroke and was hospitalized. He is now doing O.K. for his age.
3) Marc's mom has had a few other surgeries, but he has recovered well.
4) My grandfather passed away.
5) We had a brief (compared to some) battle with infertility. We both went through some fertility testing.
6) Miscarriage
7) We both have had a couple of surgeries since being married. Marc's were all outpatient. Mine were not. While the first surgery was not fun, the second surgery I'm referring to is a C-Section which gave us Luke -- safe and healthy.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

God is good! Marc and I know that with all of our hearts. I think the most important thing in our marriage is that we are both continually looking up to God first. When we do that at the same time, we grow closer together. I respect and love Marc more now than when we first got married. I know that respect and love will grow even stronger as time progresses, provided we both continually look up toward God.

Who knows what God has in store for our lives? I personally am excited to find out. We pray that we are doing His will in our marriage.

Now, rather than scan a bunch of wedding photos, I thought I would post some photos of us over the last 5 years on various trips we have taken together -- remember, we LOVE to travel. Please note that all of these trips were taken before Luke (you parents can understand that one).

This first photo was actually taken before we were married. Marc and I, along with our friend Randy, took a trip to Vermont. Marc and Randy were running in a 100-mile race. Before the raceday, we visited "Ben and Jerry's" ice cream. Here's a goofy photo.



This next photo is of us on our cruise (honeymoon). We look very tired and sunburned. That would be because we had fallen asleep in a hammock together during prime sunlight time on an island, somewhere in the Caribbean.



After our first year of marriage, we took a driving trip up to South Dakota. We decided on a whim to hike up to the highest point in the state (not comparable to Colorado but it was still over 7,000 feet). So, here's a photo of that point -- on top of Harney Peak. It was a 4 mile hike or so. It was HOT outside that day.



That next summer, we took a trip up to Manitoba to see our friends, Tammy & Reynold. Marc, of course, ran a marathon. So, here's a photo, just before the race began (I think I've put this photo on this blog before).



Here's a photo of us for the 2006 Christmas letter. It's one of our favorites.



One of our favorites trips was to Hawaii. Here's a photo of us, posing at the Arizona Memorial.



Another one of our favorite trips was to New York City. So, here's a photo of us, posing in front of what used to be the Twin Towers.



Finally, our most important job we have right now -- raising Luke! Here's a photo of our little guy -- with some messy hair. Oh, how we love this guy.



Lord willing, we'll have many more years of marriage!

I will close this post with some scripture we had read at our wedding.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. Ruth 1:16b-17