One Decade Down...

10 years. A whole decade.

I thought it would be good to take a moment to look back over all that has happened in the past 10 years. Where we have been, what God has done. Our journey together :)

Year 1...We said "I do!" and we hit the ground running with a move to McKinney and a new ministry. We were ready to dive into church planting, and we had the whole world ahead of us. I made the move from my insurance job to the bank {where I still am today!} Our first year was fun and exciting, learning to live together, learning each other's quirks. We celebrated our first year with a fancy dinner at Olive Garden :)  Mike surprised me with a remake of our wedding cake top. We had saved ours from our wedding, but it was ruined when our freezer broke. I was so sad we wouldn't get to enjoy the first year traditions, but my sweet husband surprised me with a fresh to-the-detail remake. So we got to eat fresh instead of stale cake! He also had the letters that we had written to each other on our wedding day framed, and those have hung in our bedroom ever since.

1st Anniversary

Year 2...We were running full steam ahead with church planting! Redeemer Church was meeting in our living room, and we started walking through the process to become Acts 29 candidates. I was also diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, so we began learning how to navigate a chronic illness together. We were learning how to care for one another, how to communicate better, and how to serve in ministry together. Thankfully I achieved remission and we made the decision to start our family! We were hopeful and excited, ready to have a baby. We celebrated year 2 with a breakfast at Starbucks, a food truck lunch at Klyde Warren Park, and a tour through the Perot Museum.

2nd Anniversary

Year 3...Redeemer Church launched publicly when we started meeting at First Presbyterian Church in McKinney. While the church was picking up steam, our journey to start a family was stalling. We were trying to find answers as to why we were having trouble conceiving, and we actually had our first urology consult on our 3rd anniversary {romantic, right?}. We were faced with a lot of scary unknowns, so we were learning to lean on each other in the midst of the impending storm. We tried to put our fertility worries behind us by celebrating with a fun sushi dinner at Blue Fish, then watching our engagement video. Mike gave me an entire box of chocolates with differing % of cacao and tickets to see Les Miserables. We later took a weekend trip to Fredericksburg.

3rd Anniversary

Year 4...This was a really hard year for us. We closed the doors to Redeemer Church, and we were faced with the grief of infertility. It was a year of saying goodbye to our plans and dreams. We were learning to walk through grief and heartache together, learning what it looked like to surrender our plans to the Lord. We both felt a little lost, not knowing what the Lord was doing and where we would be next. We were praying about out-of-state ministry opportunities, and we were just beginning our Embryo Adoption journey. We had our first frozen embryo transfer right before our anniversary, so we were again hopeful, not knowing yet the heartache and continued struggle that would come. We celebrated our fourth year with a low-key candle-lit dinner at home. I made Mike enchiladas, and we watched a movie about Dirk Nowitzki.

4th Anniversary

Year 5...While we were still not sure what the Lord had for us regarding ministry, we knew that we needed some time to get our feet back underneath us. We decided to focus fully on our Embryo Adoption journey, so Mike started his job at RightNow Media, and we moved from McKinney to Plano. We were still learning to trust the Lord in the face of difficult circumstances, but we were walking the journey together, thankful that we had each other. The Lord was incredibly gracious by allowing us to get pregnant with Eli and Maddie, and we had the sweetness of relishing in that long-awaited joy together! We celebrated our fifth anniversary with a trip to San Diego with family. We were 22 weeks pregnant with twins, and we couldn't have been more excited!

5th Anniversary

Year 6...We were finally parents! We met Eli and Maddie, and life basically became a complete blur as we adjusted to parenthood and life with twins :)  We learned how to be parents together, as we navigated life with 2 newborns, trying to just survive our days. And because there were 2 babies, we were both all in, all the time. It was all hands on deck to survive! As hard and crazy and exhausting as that was, I am so thankful for that time to press in and work together in figuring out the ins/outs of parenthood. It was a HUGE deal to get a night away for an anniversary date; we're thankful to my parents for holding down the fort while we snuck away for a {legitimately} fancy dinner at Perry's in San Antonio.

6th Anniversary

Year 7...This was another big year for us! We bought our first house in Melissa, and we were anticipating the arrival of baby Aiden! I feel like we were taking a breath before another wave of chaos came our way. It was a sweet time of re-learning how to reconnect just us again, after all the craziness that life throws at you when you become parents. I'm thankful for that sweet {short} time, as I know the Lord was preparing us for the next season of our lives together. We were visiting my parents in San Antonio again, so we were able to sneak away for an anniversary date with dinner at Scuzzi's, ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery, and a movie {the Mr. Rogers movie}...it was a wild night for these tired parents haha. We knew we had to take advantage of the night away before life got even more crazy! :)

7th Anniversary

Year 8...We went from a crazy life with twins to a crazy life with twins plus one...3 babies under 2 years old! So that year was a basically a blur too haha. It was hard with 3 little ones, and we also walked through the hardship of medical complications and mental health. Once again, we were learning to navigate health issues, this time learning how to be patient and love and serve one another, when we both felt pretty emotionally, mentally, and physically empty from the chaos of life. By the time our anniversary rolled around, I was finally starting to feel more like myself, just beginning to get my feet back underneath me. We celebrated our anniversary with dinner out to get sushi and cheesecake. It was nice to breathe, and be out in public without kiddos, and just talk. Uninterrupted. Though, we were home in time to watch Dateline. Because that's what happens 8 years into marriage with 3 little people in your house haha!

8th Anniversary

Year 9...Mike moved from RightNow Media to iDonate. We started leading a community group at church, but we were already starting to pray about and pursue vocational ministry opportunities again. And then the world shut down for COVID-19. So this was the year we survived a global pandemic! The whole world turned to chaos, my Crohn's became active again, and we were not quite sure where the Lord would lead us next. I felt like we had already experienced a lot in our 9 years of marriage, but this was really where the rubber met the road. We were learning what it means to work hard at marriage, to love each other unconditionally, to serve and sacrifice for one another. We celebrated our anniversary with an at-home {socially-distanced} date of painting pottery and eating cheesecake, still thankful that we were fighting for “us.”

9th Anniversary

Year 10...Our 10th year has been another wild one! We are still navigating life in the COVID era, still trying to figure out my health stuff. But after months {really, years} of praying to be back in vocational ministry, the Lord presented the opportunity to serve in Virginia. It was a big change, but we took the leap of faith, sold our house, packed up our lives, and moved across the country! We lived in an extended-stay hotel for 2.5 months {which I think would test the strongest of marriages haha!}, but were finally able to settle into our rental house, and we have been diving into Virginia life ever since. We are learning to serve and re-build community together, learning what ministry looks like now as a family, not just the two of us. While there are certainly hard aspects of moving away from everything we both have ever known, I am grateful for this time to venture out, to leap out in faith together. There's really no one else with whom I would rather adventure! :)

10th Anniversary

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When we got married 10 years ago, we had our plans and dreams and hopes for our lives together. I knew I was signing up for a life of ministry, a life of adventuring with Mike. But it's funny how the Lord's plans play out, all for our good and His glory. 

I never would have guessed that we would no longer be church planting in McKinney, Texas, and I certainly would never have guessed we would be living in Virginia! But here we are, still serving the Lord together {just in a different way than what we had originally thought}. 

I never would have guessed our journey to becoming parents would have been so long and heartbreaking. But we now have 3 beautiful gifts from Jesus, our daily reminders of His love and grace in our lives. It was a hard and dark road, but we walked it together, clinging to each other as we tried to cling to Jesus. And now we are walking the challenging and adventurous road of parenting together. We have only just begun, and I know we both have so much to learn, so many ways to grow.

I never would have guessed that we would have faced so many health issues, both physical and mental. The strain of chronic illness can take a toll, and I am grateful for a husband who has always taken care of me, always been patient, never left my side.

It {clearly} hasn't always been easy; marriage is tough, and life is hard. But I am so thankful that we have each other. I'm thankful that we are both still here, willing to fight for each other and our marriage, willing to do the hard work of loving and serving each other. I certainly have to remind myself of my wedding vows often, remembering that I promised to be Mike's faithful partner "in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in times of joy and sorrow." We have definitely seen all of those seasons in our 10 years of marriage, some several times over. And it is a daily choice for me to "love unconditionally, encourage and support, and to willfully submit as the church submits to Christ." It's easier to do that on some days than others; I still have a lot of work to do as a wife :)  But I am thankful for our life together, and there is no one else with whom I would rather figure it all out. No one with whom I would rather walk through life or take leaps of faith. 

One decade down...forever to go :)