On April 3rd, 1981 these two young kids said I will, I do… and we keep saying it. Despite the stats being against us, we are so blessed. Our love has grown deeper and more beautiful with every celebration and every tragedy. We’ve enjoyed the provision of heaven and we’ve made it through all hell breaking loose…and we just keep saying, “I do, I will.”
Here are the I do/I will cliff notes:
I do – believe that God is the love-leader and the center of our marriage. The One we’ve co-created with. The One who renewed us when it felt impossible to have faith, hope, and love and my dad said: “the greatest of these is HOPE.” Sometimes you have to have HOPE that you will have faith again. Sometimes you can only HOPE that love will triumph over darkness. Scott, you have companioned me with HOPE.
I will – no matter how many times I fail, I will practice loving you. You and God have set the bar so high for me and I am still straining toward that high bar of love after all these years
Thank you for loving me so sacrificially. Thank you for having faith for me (and in me) when my faith was failing. Maybe most of all, thank you for HOPE when all else was gone.
Now, just a little family slideshow…
Was dad happy or having a nervous breakdown? =)
My dad has learned to love you like his own son..however,.in the beginning, he wasn’t so sure about this 18 year old boy! Makes sense now, right?
Here we are before God, making promises. Who knew that the vows “for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness and health, forsaking all others for each other” were real promises we would live.
Here is the first of many communion meals together…with this bread and wine, we remember the greatest love of all in Jesus Christ.
One of many songs my strong and sensitive brother Jim has sung for me…some are not fit for this blog! Nephew Donald serving at the altar as a foreshadow of his GOLDEN friendship, partnership and relentless serving that was to come!
With these eyewitnesses! I bet they wondered if they were complicit to some kind of crime!
The culprits. Here are the people who started it all! Smiling with that “knowing what marriage is” smile and wondering if we would make it as many years as they did. Not yet but we’re working on it!
Look at these beautiful two beautiful kids… brother and sister, ministry companions. Shawn and Kathleen have been right by our side from childhood to grandparenthood.
No idea what this beginning meant but we had our HIGH HOPES looking out on the future!
Sealed with a kiss…and to our children and grandchildren’s chagrin, still kissing after all these years!
My BEST WOMAN and FAITHFUL sister Lee who has been toasting us and LOVING us all these years <3
And here we are 38 YEARS LATER!
With children who are more wonderful than we could ever have imagined…
Two new wonderful daughters and a son<3 <3 <3
And the GRANDCHILDREN!!
LA DOLCE VITA!
Thank you Scott for sharing a life of MEANINGFUL MISSION…
I’ll stop now =)
If today was my last day, I have married flesh of my flesh, heart of my heart. Thank you for challenging me, encouraging me and loving me always. I am the one who married “UP!”
Looking forward to the next 38 years with YOU!
clare