15 Years

 15 years of marriage in just a blink of an eye. I remember when I thought 15 years was a long time, now it feels like it is still just the beginning. I remember when we hit 10 years and I really thought we were good to go and had it all figured out.  Honestly, the last 5 years have been the hardest.  I now believe there is no time to coast or think you've got this marriage thing figured out.  There will always be challenges, but how we work through them and move forward is what counts.  We've stayed committed and worked to be better as individuals and together.  We are still very much a work in progress at year 15, but we also aren't content with a mediocre marriage. We are always striving to be better, do better, and have the strongest most enjoyable marriage possible!  I am thankful for Peter and the man of leadership he is becoming.  I am thankful that he takes such good care of this ever growing family.  He balances a lot and makes it look effortless and never complains. I am thankful for the life we've built and the amazing legacy we are raising.  I am thankful for the opportunity to have and raise another little world changer on the way.  We don't deserve the life we've been given but I am so thankful for it! 

As we look ahead to the next 15 years it feels like a clean slate.  We feel like we've pretty much accomplished everything we set goals to do. Peter finished college, we have adopted and had biological children.  I have been able to be a stay at home mom.  Peter has built his career into a really great place.  We have traveled far more than I ever would have thought we could with a large family.  We hope to complete Dave Ramsey's baby steps sometime in the next year!  When you are standing at the altar as 20 year old's this is about as far into the future as we could see.  We've pretty much completed everything on that original list.  Now we look ahead and realize that this next phase of life needs new goals. What do we want these next 15 years to look like?  How do we want to continue to grow our marriage in the midst of parenting 6 children?  How do we want parenting to look as it continues into the next phase with teenagers and young adults?  What are our financial goals as we look ahead to putting all these kids through college?  How soon can Peter retire so we can maximize our later years and have fun?  Where do we want to continue to raise this family?  How can we best serve others?  It's a very exciting time for us and we feel like there is now so much opportunity ahead of us and so many potential doors open.  It will be fun to see what our lives look like by year 20! 

We had big plans to go on a trip to celebrate, but of course plans always seem to have to change. Instead we went to one of our most favorite places for a few nights of of R and R.  Even though it wasn't Hawaii, it felt so nice for both of us to enjoy some peace and quiet, lots of time to rest, quiet meals and walks together where we could actually talk!  It was perfect!  

Restaurants were all booked up, but somehow this little to-go meal in a park for our big 15th anniversary dinner was perfectly fitting for us! 

So here's to year 15 with so much to anticipate in the year ahead. Of course we cannot wait to welcome baby #6 very soon!  Peter has some exciting things coming up at work, and of course so much of life is up in the air at this moment and we have much we are praying about as we look ahead in the new year.  So away we go!