Monday, August 25, 2014

Celebrating 24 year, who we were and who we are

It's our 24th anniversary today.  We are celebrating with our usual trip to the State Fair and dinner out.

It is amazing to think it has been that long.  Seems like just yesterday we got married.  But then you start looking back at what has happened in 24 years and suddenly it seems exactly like 24 years.

When you look back so much has happened and we have become different people.  And it would be easy to look at John or for him to look at me and say, that is not the person I married.  Because I am not.  And John is not.  But every day we determine to walk this path with the person we married, love them for who they have become and dream and plan with the person we are with today rather than the person we married years ago and the dreams we dreamed before life really began.

Certainly 24 years ago I would not have imagined that John would be in school at this time, that our son would be married or that we would have a 9 year old.  I wouldn't have imagined that I would be in real estate.  I might have imagined that we would be living in a little condo but not because we sold our house. Because we never got off the ground to be more (we were 19 when we got married after all, not everyone had my vision for future financial success at the time.)  I never would have imagined that we would have taken our family on a mission trip to Kenya, John would be a firefighter, I would spend 17 years as a homemaker (when we got married I was going to be the one to work and support the family believe it or not).

When we got married I had a couple specific hopes related to our future life.  I hoped we wouldn't have to raise our (multiple, close together) children in an apartment building because we couldn't afford a house and I hoped i wouldn't have to spend the rest of my life in this frozen tundra enduring the frigid winters.  And I hoped that I would finish my college degree before I was 30.  Hmmm, seemed like we were on the right track with the first one but the rest...

I'm glad I didn't imagine this life.  Finding and discovering it together has been part of the fun. Learning to know John more and help him pursue his dreams and passions.  Getting to know ourselves, at 19 I really didn't know who I was and hadn't really grown into my own skin yet.  Choosing each other over and over again as we grew and changed.  The good and bad of all that we have endured, celebrated, journeyed over and through.

Tomorrow we start our 25th year of marriage.  We are excited to near that milestone and plan to celebrate all year long.  25 years on the 25th of every month.  Feel free to send us your celebration ideas because one of the things we have learned in 24 years is that our ideas are great but our follow through/creativity is slightly off...But we embrace that about ourselves too. :)

And for your viewing pleasure, a little visual of how it all started:

The little boy in the background of this pic just had twin girls this summer.  Which is a sign you have been married a long time!

This cake design was one of John's main contributions to the wedding planning.

I think it is safe to say we are the quintessential 90's wedding look here.

Happy and in love after 24 years.