5 years

we celebrated our 5th anniversary while we were out of town. my brother and his sweet wife babysat for us to go on a date in the sweet little mountain town nearby. we took no pictures on our date, but we ate delicious food, wandered around the town. adam bought me this great orange hat, doing his doctorly duty to protect my fair skin from cancer. we have been resuscitating our marriage journal in the last year and are trying to write in it on important occasions to chronicle God's grace and providence in our marriage. i will include an excerpt here of what i wrote for our anniversary this year:
5/12/2009 In preparation for our 5 yr (!!!) anniversary:

"As you gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love." bonhoffer

Happy anniversary dear Adam! i love you so much more today than I did May 15, 2004. I loved you then, but that love had not yet been tried and tested. I am thankful that God is such a good covenant-keeper and that marriage has a much higher calling than simply merging two lives. There is meaning and value in covenant-keeping, in cultivating love, in displaying the grace and beauty that is there between Christ and the church. Oh my! Thank you for your grace and gentleness with me...for confronting my ugly sin with love and care so that we might be restored to unity. Let us always seek the goal of oneness and unity as we are emotionally, physically, mentally stretched with life's various happenings. What a joy it is to parent with you! It is no piece of cake though and sometimes it is downright exhausting. Graham is nearly 7 months, Marit 22 months, you are about to start residency, we are buying our first house, and we have been married 5 years!! Life just moves along! It is crazy at times, so let us continually resolve to allow Christ to work in our hearts, to sanctify us, to work grace in us that we might be gracious with one another. Let us lay aside criticism and move toward each other in love every day. I love you much dear Adam. Here's to at least 50 more years!


from our wedding






honeymoon



orange hat



on our anniversary after the kids were in bed


and thank you friends and family who have offered encouragement, babysitting, love, and general support to help us nurture our marriage. you bless us.