Ten Years Ago Today...

I said "I do!" to the man of my dreams. 

As I rewind to 2002, I see this twenty-one year old girl so full of hopes and dreams.  Dreams of a house full of children and living this... Leave it to Beaver type existence, Somewhere that's Green.  Hopes of a husband who serves the Lord faithfully in all he does and leads us in daily devotions and family worship time. Selfishly, I admit, I also hoped that by this time we'd be doing well financially and living in our dream home.

But ten years has past, and my life is not at all like what I'd hoped or dreamed.  By God's grace it's better and we took a mighty hard road to get to this place.  In 2002, we got married and started to live a "keeping up with the Jonses" lifestyle.  We bought a house right away and went through two new cars because it's  what all our friend's were doing.  By 2004, we were in debt and I couldn't even imagine quitting my full time job because we couldn't afford it.  Not only did we both work full time, we both worked over time, which led us into this survival cycle of just doing the bare minimum to survive because we were so exhausted. 

Instead of being a stay at home wife who cooked wonderful and wholesome meals, I was an over worked, stressed out mess who relied heavily on restaurants and fast food because I was too tired to cook. I also took on the unhealthy habit of chain smoking because it gave me a reason to take a 10 minute break every hour at work.  We stopped going to church all together because Sunday was our only day that we didn't have to work and we slept the day away just to catch up on the sleep we missed during the week prior.  On top of that, forget children!  Life was so hectic, the thought of adding kids to the mix was just too overwhelming.  We did this for four years and finally in 2008, God got a hold of us in a way we never saw coming.  We both got laid off on the same day.  

The next few years was definitely a time of refining for us.  Jobs came and went for my husband and even for me.  Even while my husband was still unemployed,  I quit a job I took on because we felt strongly that the the Lord wanted me home.  We received much criticism for that decision, but we don't regret it at all. Even though we have lost much, including our home, we have grown closer to the Lord and even closer to one another. I guess being together every day for two straight years during unemployment will do that. 

All this to say that as I look back on the young girl who had no clue what she was getting herself into,  I am thankful that God has led us down the path of hardship because it has made me the woman I am today and for that, I'd say "I do" all over again. 

To my husband, I love you even more now than I did on our wedding day and I'm also thankful that God has created you into the man of God I prayed for many years ago.  I am so excited too see where the next ten years will lead us!