The other day we were talking and sharing about our ‘beginning’ years as a young married couple and I remain amazed that we made it.
Coming from two different backgrounds where my husbands parents were like the Walton’s with Ma and Pa and six kids and a dog and family laughter and fun.
They had a small home and it wasn’t fancy but it was home, and ma baked and cooked and cleaned and stitched, and it was home for the eight of them and anyone else who wanted to visit.
My home was different, having a single mom raise myself and my sister’s.
We had grandma’s who loved us but we were not cozy in a home like his, there was a lot more turmoil and chaos where we lived and we moved many times.
When we started to date I struggled with some of it, as I had pain in my background and a wounded heart, and he didn’t fully understand where I was coming from.
It was hard, really hard, but we made it through the dating years, even when I hurt my knee on a motor cycle accident, we could have gone over a mountain side, but I believe angels protected us and God was with us.
Our wedding was nice and we had family and friends, and it was like a dream and a surreal moment and God was with us when we said our vows.

Life began as husband and wife and we played house and made plans that two teens could never fully understand, and God was with us.
We were expecting our first baby and I was very sick, and we struggled with changes and moves and settling into a tiny house while waiting for the baby to join us, and God was with us.
I remained very sick but so enjoyed the expectancy of life within, and we would be mom and dad, and we hoped for many things, and God was with us.
After four hours of labor our son was born and life as we knew it as ‘husband and wife’ changed us, from two to three and God was with us.
The adjustment of new parent days, was a learning process for both of us, it was not easy as we moved through our new and different life but we knew God was with us.
Then a few years later, we learned of baby two with great excitement and that pregnancy made me even more tired, and as we changed from three to four God was with us.
Our babies grew and I was more sick, meningitis came and you stayed with our children, while I was in the hospital and God was with us.
Years of health struggles, years of counseling, and we learned to manage and grow as our children did, and God was with us.
Marriage is for better and worse and sometimes our worst was pretty hard, but God was with us.
We moved from rentals to owned homes, had a few dogs and cats and a fish or two and even a rabbit, and God was with us.
Your brother passed away and it was so hard and so painful to say good bye and we knew, God was with us in our sadness.
The children grew from grade school, to middle, then high school and college and in each season of time, God was with us.
Marriage came for them and our family grew, our son had a wife, and they were now ‘the young married couple’ and God was with us
The first grand baby came and it was scary and she was early, and it was critical for both mom and baby, yet at two pounds she was healthy and God was with us.

Years went on and another marriage came and also other babies, and each time we knew we did not stand alone as God was with us.
When my sister was on hospice and our house became a ‘care home’, and we didn’t know what we were doing, God was with us.
When we both had surgeries and ailments, and struggles and hard times, even during a scare of my mumps, we knew that God was with us.
Other years moved on and our parents passed away and we felt stretched and broken as we moved through our grief and yet God was with us.
Hard times have carved their way through the passing of time, as our history has been molded by how God was with us, during each and every moment.
We remained strong as I retired and then you had more surgeries and it was not easy, but we always knew God was with us.
We have six miracles who we call grand children now. We are the older ones as we watch another generation grow and mature.

We have made it forty one years, together, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer and through good and hard times. God has been with us.
As we hold coffee mugs and smell the freshly made brew we realize with a deep richness, that God was with us all the time.