Words cannot express how grateful I am to God and to my bride for 30 years of life as husband and wife. I was privileged to marry my best friend - and we remain just that: best friends. We were blessed to see a friendship grow into a deep and abiding love for one another, and our life has been an ever-growing and always-changing adventure. The love story that God continues to write for us continues to exceed my expectation or imagination in an Ephesians 3:20 kind of way. I especially love the way The Amplified Bible expresses that verse, as The Word says our God is able to do "superabundantly, for over and able all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams." That's my experience in marriage - and I thought 30 years together was worthy of celebration.
I don't remember exactly why we didn't celebrate appropriately at 25 years - except I remember it had something to do with being... well... busy. Oh, we celebrated. But not in a manner Annette deserved. So I was DETERMINED we would celebrate appropriately at 30. And we did!
One of the things a little unique to our perspective on the milestone celebrations is we affirm with our girls - Jaimee and Lindsey - that we attribute much of the joy in our marriage journey to the joy THEY have brought us. Parenting can be hard. We know that. Parents can pray and do all they know to raise children well, and still experience monumental challenges in their family. We know that, too. I am quick to say that we began our parenting journey knowing we were clueless as to how to mentor and disciple our littles. We were scared - to - death! But we prayed and did our best to be Godly parents who valued family above everything except our God. And God granted us favor. We are grateful beyond words for this - grateful to God, and to our girls, who have made family such a blessing... so rewarding... and so much FUN!
A family is a place where principles
are hammered and honed on the
anvil of everyday living.
Charles R. Swindoll
With this in mind, we knew that an appropriate celebration of 30 years of marriage and family should include the entire family - an "us" celebration. I suppose we could have enjoyed time away at any of the lovely places around here. A few nights in a Disney resort could have been refreshing. A bed-and-breakfast in Saint Augustine would certainly be lovely. Or we could have chosen to revisit wonderful experiences we enjoyed in east Tennessee. Choices abounded - but I wanted to spend our 30th anniversary in one of the most romantic places on earth. After considering choices, we decided on The City of Lights, also frequently thought of as The City of Love... Paris. And since we were so close, we thought we'd visit London, as well. Quite the celebration, for sure! This celebration alone merits pages of remembering, and this is just one of the things that kept us busy this fall. So just a few pics of this time together, with more to come...
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| Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife. Franz Schubert |
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| A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. Mignon McLaughlin |
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| Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. Victor Hugo |
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| Our kids blessed us with a dinner cruise on the River Seine. Most romantic night EVER! |
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| Selfie on the Seine. Is she beautiful or WHAT? So much more than I deserve! |
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| All of us - enjoying time together at The London Eye. |
CHRISTMAS... IN SEPTEMBER
Yes, updates stopped in September - because Christmas starts for us in September. No, we don't get the decorations down, and sadly, we don't start shopping in September. "Christmas in September" is the launch of our effort to work with hundreds of people in our church to produce a holiday spectacular called The Singing Christmas Trees. It's an Orlando tradition which began some 35 years ago. Each year, an audience of 32,000 or so make "The Trees" a part of their holiday tradition. More importantly, lives are transformed every year by an understanding of the true meaning of Christmas... the greatest gift ever given... a baby born in Bethlehem who made His way to a cross so we could have life eternal. Once preparation for this production begins, it can become almost all-consuming. Not an excuse for being busy - but a big part of our fall every year, for sure.
Beyond family, one of the great blessings of our lives centers around the community we enjoy with our church family. The Singing Christmas Trees affords us an opportunity to practically live with the friends and partners in ministry we call our Choir, Cast, Orchestra, and Crew. Amazingly gifted people unite hearts, hands, voices... every unique gift leveraged for one purpose - and we feel God at work in us and through us as we worship our Savior and share the meaning of Christmas with our audience. Rewarding - but almost all-consuming, indeed!
MORE ON THE MINISTRY FRONT
If preparing for Christmas wasn't enough, the Fall of 2014 found us in the final stages of preparing for renovation of our 5,000-seat worship center at First Baptist Orlando. This renovation is something we've planned for and looked forward to for several years. With a desire to close the worship center for renovation just after the first of the year, it became necessary to work on budgets to insure we were being wise stewards of the resources God had blessed us with, finalize the renovation plan, and develop a plan for who to keep having "church" without having use of the worship center. It was my honor and privilege to work closely with our Church Building Committee and members of our leadership team to develop these plans. The intensity of this monumental task continues today - but we are underway, and hope to move into a newly-renovated worship center this summer. Follow the link below to a video that provides a glimpse of the last worship services in the worship center and the beginning of the renovation process.
AND IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH...
We decided to begin some home improvement. Kind of an extension of the 30th anniversary celebration. And something we had been envisioning for a long time...
When we moved to Florida almost 9 years ago (that's a story in itself, given our history of moving every 4 to 5 years!), we wanted two Florida-life things in our residence: palm trees - and a pool. Neither Annette nor I had ever had a pool of our own. The swim season is long here. We look forward to entertaining grandchildren some day. And, perhaps most importantly - our home is a place of refuge for us... a place where we "retreat" from the pace and pressure of our lives... a place of "respite", which may be defined as an interval of rest or relief... a place where we can "selah" - something I understand to be a pause to calmly reflect on life and circumstances and spiritual things...
When we bought our home, we got our palm trees. I fed them frequently, and now they are too tall for me to maintain. And then there was that experience (when I was still able to trim them) when I found myself face to face with a snake. What in the WORLD is a snake doing 20 feet in the air in a palm tree?? But I digress (again).
So we got our palm trees. And we bought our house with the pool in mind... more than enough yard to accommodate the pool and still have yard left for recreation and animals (because I am a dog-lover). We bought in 2007. The housing market crashed in 2008, and we knew it was not expedient to invest more in our home. So we waited.
Finally, in 2014, we decided the time was right. We started construction the day we returned from our anniversary celebration. We had absolutely no idea how long the process would take, or what a distraction resolving construction-related issues would become. 5-1/2 months later, we are almost finished. ALMOST. I've never been more frustrated with a process in my life. EVER. But... I have to admit the spa therapy, and the spa conversations, have been a good thing. Hopefully, we'll finally be finished in a week. Or a month. Or more. But we'll count our blessings anyway, and hope the distraction is eliminated very soon. And then we'll enjoy many days of respite. And many years of relaxing conversation with the one I get to spend my life with. Yes, we are blessed indeed.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!
Almost since the day our girls were born, we've been praying that God would bless them with a spouse - a partner in life and ministry - who would allow them to experience the blessing of family we have enjoyed. Four years ago, God blessed Lindsey with Bryan. In 2014, God brought a special young man into Jaimee's life. They were engaged on Christmas Eve - and the wedding planning is underway. We enjoyed wonderful family gatherings with Jaimee and Travis at Thanksgiving (when he asked for permission...) and Christmas (when he proposed), followed by a trip to Mobile to meet Travis' family. We are beyond excited about all God has in store for these two.
They're getting married in May. Less than a week later, I leave on our next motorcycle adventure. That kind of brings us full-circle, doesn't it?
So it has been quite a year. Busy, busy, busy - but busy in the best of ways.
Blessed? Yes, we are blessed indeed.
And we are trusting 2015 will be every bit as busy and fulfilling!
