10 Years Today

Today marks 10 years of marriage for me & my bride. That represents about a third of my lifetime, and if you count the years we dated, it means we've been together almost 1/2 of our lives. Here's the thing -- I don't know what the difference is between us anymore. I've changed so much and so much of who I am comes from being Jennifer's husband, that it's difficult to know where I stop and she begins. Of course we argue like any other couple and we have our days, but the last 10 years have been mostly happy (actually when I think about the "hard" things, they rarely have anything to do with our marriage but external circumstances). Here are some of the highlights over the past 10 years:

• The seminary years -- no kids, great friends, living in God's country (Denver, Co), no money, but lots of happiness.
• Our first dump, er, I mean house that we gutted and remodeled
• The birth of our 3 beautiful boys -- Caleb (2001), Gavin (2003), & Jaxon (2006)
• Building of our "house of dreams"
• Great friends that we've met along the way, many of whom are scattered around the country and we don't get to see as much as we'd like anymore.
• 2 weeks spent in spain (2002)
• Our first "family" vacation to the beaches of Florida (minus Jaxon)
• The early years of youth ministry, where we had a constant stream of teenagers in our house (often tearing up the furniture).
• A long weekend in New Haven & Boston.

There've been lowlights as well -- we've dealt with a divorce that was more painful than we ever could have guessed, the loss of a job that almost wrecked me, and many teary goodbye's as moved on to new stages in our lives. But the thing is, on the other side of those things, we've gotten stronger for struggle, although we still bear the scars.

So to all our friends and family, who have laughed with us, cried with us, and journeyed with us along the way, thanks!

And to my bride -- here's to ten more!