7 Years & 3 Kiddos Later

  This morning I woke up to the movement of the bed as the girls climbed up with us, baby giggles from the other room, the sound of rain outside my window, and a smiling husband who whispered, "Happy Anniversary" over the pile of kiddos, stuffed dogs, and blankets that had wiggled there way in between us.
  If you had told me 7 years ago, "Hey, you'll have 3 kids 7 years from today!", I would have said, "No, way! Probably just 1."  But, nope, it's 3 kiddos.  And one truly amazing husband.
  We had a great anniversary.  We spent the morning laying on the couch with the kids, showing them our wedding pictures and a video we made for our parents of pics of us as kids and then as a couple.  We told them how much we loved them and loved each other.  We explained that our anniversary was like the birthday of when we got married.  And we explained that being married, meant (in simple terms for them) that we had promised God and each other to love always love each other...forever. 
  As we watched the video of our childhood photos and then photos of us together as a dating and engaged couple, it was like I was watching 2 parallel paths that started - literally - on two different sides of the world (Jacob spent most of his childhood and teenage years in Africa) and slowly started veering towards each other, until our paths didn't just crossed, but became one big, better, brighter, happier path.  It was really neat to think of it like this. 
  But as I watched, I also thought of everything we had on those paths that have helped to make our marriage what it is today.  And so, I want to say thank you to several people:

* Thank you to our grandparents.  We had every single one of our grandparents, and even a great grandmother, present at our wedding.  Between our grandparents and parents, we have almost 300 years of combined marriage experience to which was can and do look to as a model for a strong, loving, Christ-centered marriage.  What an amazing foundation to have!
* Thank you to Jacob's parents.  Thank you for loving and raising him into the godly man that he is today.
* Thank you to my mom and dad.  Thank you for giving us a truly beautiful, loving, amazing wedding - it went beyond anything I had ever dreamed of...it was perfect.  And, daddy, thank you for setting the standard for what a husband should be.  And thank you for taking me on that long walk down the aisle :)
* Finally, thank you to Jacob.  Thank you for being a husband that I don't deserve.  Thank you for raising the bar for husbands and fathers.  Thank you for truly being an Ephesians 5 husband.

Jacob, 7 years & 3 kiddos later...I love you even more.