10 Years

Friday was our anniversary. It’s so hard to believe how our lives have changed in 10 short years. We were only 22 and 23 years old!!! So many things we didn’t know ten years ago. We didn’t know how it would feel to hold our baby for the first time or how it would feel to have to depend on each other so completely to take care of that baby. We didn’t know how it would be to try to live with each other even though our personalities are so completely different at the SAME TIME, not knowing what it would be like to grow more and more in Oneness with each other. We didn’t know what it would be like to go through 6 (almost 7 now) moves, 4 babies, and cycles of depression (mine). Who KNEW that we’d have those first three babies so close together and survive it? And then that we’d go and adopt another one from Ethiopia? Who knew that Eli would bring so much joy to our entire family, being such a gift and blessing to the rest of us? Who knew how our hearts would ache for children without a mommy and daddy to hold them? We never guessed that just 10 years later, we’d be standing by my mom’s bed together as she breathed her last breath. O God, your grace is sufficient. You’re presence is real.
It’s so amazing to me how things have happened in our lives. It’s been so hard, but also so good. It’s incredibly hard for me to leave “home” and move all the way to SF, but at the same time, exciting to begin a new chapter. As we look back, we can see a story unfolding. Although it has been scary and heart-breaking sometimes, I am anticipating what the story will look like after 20 or 30 years. Could I possibly love him more in 20 years? It seems impossible, but older, wiser people tell me it’s true. Being married to Eric is a dream.