Today is The Mister and I's anniversary. Eleven years!
Anniversaries are good "big picture" days, days to talk about what has been and what we hope to be. It's a day to count your blessings, don't you think? This morning, I was overwhelmed with the goodness of God, that He has given me such a full life with this husband of mine and with these three rascally gifts:
He's gifted us with great life experiences and grace for the difficult ones.
And today I'm grateful. Grateful for a God who gives good gifts to His children. Grateful for this man of mine. Grateful for our children that bring us such delight. Grateful for where we are and what we're doing. Grateful to know what hope is.
We've celebrated in some incredible places on our anniversary in years past:
- The beautiful Hill Country of Texas, just about to start our first church ministry position.
- We were on a mission trip to Austria. The group surprised us with a hotel stay, rather than staying in separate rooms in a hostel!
- We went to Galveston, TX because I was 7 months pregnant and needed to stay close to home.
- Another mission trip, this time in Ireland.
- A milestone 5th anniversary, which we celebrated in Wimberley, TX. We also found out on the trip that we were pregnant with Reese.
- A brand new baby kept us close to home, the 7F Lodge in College Station.
- Kyle officiated a wedding in Houston so we stayed in the big city.
- We made a discovery trip to Charlottesville to determine if God was calling us to church plant. We had our third baby, Luke, with us. One thing we learned: UVA's campus is not stroller friendly!
- We went out to eat in Charlottesville, exhausted and tired from our first few months of church planting.
- A big year, celebrated in Hawaii.
Tonight, we're laying low, going out in Charlottesville, wondering if we'll make it to 9 pm, and saving up for a big trip on our 15th! We'll talk about our wedding day and where we've been since that day. We'll talk about where we hope to be next year and ten years from now. We'll count our blessings together.
Anniversaries are big days. But what about the everydays? Then, too, I will choose to count my blessings, to name them one by one. It's those everydays and those moment-to-moment choices that add up to the big, celebration days. And I hope to have many more!
What are you thankful for today? What has the Giver of good gifts given you?
