It's beautiful....our story. It's full of ups and downs, highs and lows, blessings and sorrow, good and bad, it's full of real life. Our story could fill the pages of a book and it would hold you; hook, line, and sinker. It's a story of love, passion, excitement, mercy and grace...God's grace. It's a story I'm so proud to be a part of, so blessed to be living out right now.
And so it began...... We met in high school, I was a freshman and he was a senior. We actually met two weeks before school began, during band camp. I was a majorette and he was a drummer. He noticed me right away, but I was shy and was just trying not to make a fool of myself in high school. He introduced himself and struck up conversations with me often, even though he couldn't remember my name. Maybe he was nervous, but it took him several times to remember it! Ha! Within just a few weeks we were inseparable! At our first football game that season, I introduced him to my mom. He told her she was going to love him and she said "We'll see about that!" But he was right. She did indeed like him, and the Lord gave her peace early on in our relationship that he was my future husband. That year flew by and we were almost always together. By the time he graduated he was sure we would one day be married. I wish I could say "the rest is history" from there, but once school started back for me and he began college, things were different. Because of choices I made, we were then apart for several years. During this time, I worked for his mom so I always knew what he was up to. After I graduated high school I became a single mom. I had the cutest little boy, and although the circumstances were not ideal, that baby boy made me a Mommy and I've loved being a mother ever since! And that's when God wove mine and my husband's stories back together! My sweet Hubby says, he has known from the moment he first saw me, that I was the girl he would marry and spend the rest of his life with. It took me a bit longer, but I remember that day so clearly...... It was early October, I was working a full day at the flower shop when my mom brought my 3 month old son in to see me during my lunch break. It was always hard for me to work and be away from my baby. I've always desired to be home with my children, but as a single mom I had to work and provide for my son. So that day, just as I had finished lunch and I was hugging my little one goodbye before my mom took him back home, my (now) husband walked into the flower shop. He came to see his mom, but when he noticed me, my son, and mom in the back room, he came to say hello. And this is when I knew....without a shout of a doubt...that he was the one I would spend my life with. He said hello and made small talk and then out of nowhere, he asked me if he could hold my son....I had broke this man's heart, we hadn't spoken much at all over the past few years, and it was physically and emotionally hard for him to be in the same building with me. But here he was talking to me and asking to hold my baby. I gladly handed my son over, and they both smiled and laughed at each other and had the sweetest few minutes together. He held my son as if it was the most natural thing in the world to him. He focused completely on my little one, took in every bit of him, made silly faces at him and talked to him so gently. Then he looked up at me and asked if me and my baby boy would join him for pizza one night. And that's it! The rest is history! :) We had pizza together that very night and talked for HOURS about everything. I asked him for his forgiveness and although it wasn't needed, he asked for mine. We talked about the past, the present, and the future. We both knew we had always loved each other and we both knew we always would, and our plans were made for a lifetime, that very evening. Nine months later we were married! Seventeen years ago today, in the most beautiful outdoor ceremony in front of a small cabin, surrounded by all of our loved ones and lots of flowers, I married my high school sweetheart, my best friend! I became his and he became mine and we were instantly a family: me, him, and my one year old son. Only because of God's grace. "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate." ~ Matthew 19:6 NKJV Our story didn't end there, it only just begun. For seventeen years we've been by each other's side. I love my Husband more today than I ever thought possible! I adore him! Our lives are not perfect, but we've never once strayed from sticking together, loving each other, humbling ourselves, and pushing forward. We've become stronger and closer and God has blessed every step we've taken together, and I'm so grateful. "...Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." ~ Ruth 1:16 In seventeen years, we've been blessed with 6 wonderful children, moved 4 times with the last one being out of state. We built a house. We've raised beef cattle off and on for years. We walked away from a great job to try to start our own business, but then found we needed to move out of state and start all over. We waited not-so-patiently for 3 years for a job to provide financially for our family. We went through two long, hard custody battles to keep my oldest son, and then when he was 14, my husband and I stood together when our son decided to go live with his biological dad. We have dealt with severe anxiety, deep depression, and spent many sleepless nights wondering how everything would work out. We endured deep grief when my father-in-law was killed in a tragic accident and then watched as my husband's family fell apart, for a time, because of that grief. We struggled with unexplained secondary infertility for six years and lost two babies to miscarriage. Our recent miscarriage, literally almost took my life, but through all of it.....EVERY....BIT.....OF......IT....we've walked through it together. We are both stronger people because of it all, but we are even stronger together! I can't imagine walking through this life without my husband and I can't wait to see what is still ahead for us. "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance............Three things will last forever- faith, hope and love- and the greatest of theses is love." ~I Corinthians 13: 4-7,13 Adam, Every. Single. Day. I thank God for you. I thank Him for letting our paths cross 22 years ago. I thank Him for bringing us back together. I thank Him for the beautiful wedding ceremony we shared and the holy vows we made to each other. I thank Him for drawing us closer together each and every day. I thank Him for giving us our large family. I thank Him for each of our children and that we get the great privilege of raising them together. I thank Him that I get to wake up next to you each morning and fall asleep in your arms each night. I thank Him for our marriage. I love you more now than I ever thought possible, yet each day I love you even more! I'm so happy I get to do this life with you! You still give me butterflies, sweep me off my feet, make me laugh, bring me joy, lift my spirits, and make me feel like the most beautiful, luckiest, girl in the world! You are my Prince Charming! Happy Anniversary, Babe! I am so grateful that I am yours and you are mine! I love you, Andie "My beloved is mine, and I am his...." ~Song of Solomon 2:16 KJV " Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it....." ~ Song of Solomon 8:7
1 Comment
Adam
7/30/2019 03:33:01 pm
It has always been you...my love. I am truly blessed.
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For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. " AuthorHi! I'm Andrea, wife to my handsome hubby, homeschooling mama to my 7 amazing blessings, and daughter of the King of kings. I am so glad you have stopped by my little piece of the web. My prayer is that the Lord will use this blog to encourage you in your personal, daily walk with Christ. Archives
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