An early anniversary celebration

One's anniversary celebrations get a little unusual the longer one is married. At least, that is the way it has been in our house. Sunday will be our 34th anniversary, which is rather odd since my sister recently convinced me (on my birthday) that I had just turned 29 again. Hmmm... I was a child bride... or almost. :)

A very dear family sent us a financial gift recently, which enabled us to stock up the pantry again and get caught up on a couple of utility bills. We also used part of the gift to go out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel this morning for an early anniversary... uh... dinner... no, breakfast! I love eating breakfast out and this is one of my favorite places to enjoy. It didn't let me down!

Since we were in that part of the county, we stopped at a Meijer's and the Super Target to take advantage of a few sales. How good it feels to have the pantry restocked and a few more items in the freezer. God (through various friends in the last six weeks or so) has definitely met our every need and even desires as birthday gifts were everything I would enjoy.... books, magazines, china, and even a few trips to Starbucks. Not to mention the goodie bag (box) I received from my daughter full of delightful items. Sigh... it doesn't get any better than that. :)

Thirty-four years? When did that happen. It hasn't been easy and there were at least two times I had my suitcases packed. When my husband was going through all the doctor's visits to go on Disability, they didn't know what to do with a married couple. Honest. It seems they had not had anyone with such severe Bipolar symptoms who was still married (the root of my husband's illness are the terrible environmental allergies but many of the symptoms come through as Bipolar).

How did we do it? Jesus is real and His love endureth forever. I still remember about twenty years ago (more or less) telling Him that if He wanted me to stay in this marriage, He had to love my husband through me. Hubby was not a pleasant person to be around. I never knew what to expect from one day to another... or one minute to another. God did answer that prayer and gave me the grace and the love to go on.

As I told a friend who was going through marriage troubles, I knew my husband was my main ministry. Living with someone who can become not only depressed but suicidal is possible only when God is in the middle of that relationship... a strand of three is not easily broken. God is good.

How much I would have missed if I would have given up back then. We would never have had Christopher for one thing. Speaking of which, I miss my boy. He's having a wonderful time and mentioned something about how much he loves the architecture in Baltimore and that he was buying a sword. Hmmm... did I hear that right?