25 Years!

This week my husband, Thomas, and I celebrated 25 years of marriage!

In true thrifty fashion, I bought our wedding album at Goodwill. It even had an orange sticker on the front of it.

As I get older I’m amazed at how fast time moves. Not just in regards to years of marriage, but every life event, big or small. I’ve spent quite a bit of time this year at my family’s cabin in the mountains. Many family members came together to build this cabin in 2000. It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this building is 20 years old! For goodness sakes, my twins will turn 21 next month!

Those flowers must be really fascinating!

Look at that young, handsome guy! We were 21 years old when we were married, in January of our senior year of college.

Reflecting on my 25 years of marriage it’s easy for me to view it as unremarkable. We just keep living, one day at a time. But when I recall the way too many marriages of friends and family did not reach this milestone I’m reminded that 25 years is not guaranteed; it takes effort. I have to credit my husband with taking most of the initiative in the “effort” area. Over the years he has insisted that we take time away together, even when it’s tricky and inconvenient. He has booked us at marriage conferences to bring our focus back to our commitment. He has tried to make the spiritual health of our marriage and family a priority, even when it sometimes feels awkward and “freakish” when compared to our culture. Even as we took a few days away to mark our anniversary (yet again at the cabin!), he brought along some questions about marriage for us to discuss—kind of taking a pulse of our marriage and the expectations that each of us brought to this covenant. One question that stuck out to me had to do with my expectations of him. Now, I’m not by nature one to make long term plans and even dwell on expectations. So the only thing I could think of was that when we married I knew he loved me and was committed to me. The path our lives would take were less consequential to me than that fact. And he has proven his commitment over and over. As I am someone who really does live in the moment and just keeps taking the next step, I appreciate that he does more of the reflecting and thinking about the big picture.

Why does 21 seem so much younger when you’re a parent??

Lest you think all of our 25 years have been peachy, we have had plenty of difficult days. In my first draft of this blogpost I wrote about those difficult days. But it didn’t feel right to include that here. I’m certainly will to share the events of my life with you, should you ask, and I don’t mind if you do. Not everyone’s journey is the same, but I take very seriously Romans 12:15 that tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. The circumstances of our lives may be different, but we can extend compassion to one another.

So, let this post be about the gift of God that this milestone commemorates! And enjoy a few pictures!

Despite my devious expression, I did not want to smash cake into each other’s faces! Perhaps this was our first disagreement as a married couple, because someone else did intend to smash cake.