32 YEARS HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

32 years ago today I married my childhood crush, the boy next door.  I can not believe it has been 32 years. Some days it feels like it, some days it doesn't seem possible.

I met Brett for the first time when I was in 5th grade, did you catch that FIFTH grade. He was in the 8th.  His family moved into our neighborhood.  I remember the first time I saw him.  He had these dark brown eyes, and sun bleached blond hair, and he always did this weird flicking thing with his fingers.  I was crazy about him.

We had that little elementary school love thing going on.  Passing notes, do you like me circle yes or no.  He painted our initials on one of the gas tanks in the neighborhood.  I think there was some hand warming in there somewhere.  But, alas he went on to high school and out grew me.  I became just his little sisters friend.

We stayed in touch, because I was his little sisters best friend, we went to church together, and we were in high school together.  Of course I was a freshman and he was a senior, so it wasn't really like we went to the same high school.  He graduated and joined the navy.  And I would write him with all my problems.

Then one day the beginning of my senior year I dropped Tory off at her house on my way to work.  Her brother Greg came out to the car, and said you have to come in just for a minute, and see what I picked up for Mom in St Louis today.  I said I can't I am late for work.  He said it will only take a minute, so I got out and as Tory and I headed up on the porch this strange guy jumped out the door.  This man with dark brown eyes and sun bleached hair.  Greg had picked Brett up at the airport from Guam and he was home on leave for a month.  I had that same reaction as in fifth grade.  I was crazy about him all over again.

We spent a lot of time together that month while he was home.  When it was time for him to leave he was headed  for a base in Memphis for training.  So he would make it home about every 3 or 4 weeks.  We continued to date while he was in Memphis.  From Memphis he headed to San Diego and we knew before he left for San Diego that we were getting married.

I went to San Diego to see him the fall after graduation and we got engaged.  We spend our year engaged apart, I saw him once from September till July when we got married.  Keep in mind those were the days before cell phones, before texts, before face book, before skyping.  Our communication was snail mail letters, and an occasional long distance phone call.  I still have all those letters in a box.

Brett came home a week before our wedding, we got married, and two or three days later we packed up everything we owned in a small car and headed to San Diego.  I was 18 years old.  I will say there were a couple of times on the trip that I remember thinking what have I done. HA

We spent the first 10 months of our marriage in San Diego alone just the two of us.  That was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but was probably one of the best things for our marriage.  There was no running home to Mom if we got into a fight.  There was no calling Dad if I had car problems.  We learned to depend on each other, and lean on each other.

Were these past 32 years all fantastic?  No.  Where there problems, and issues, and difficulties, and fights, and stubbornness, and frustration, and tempers, and tantrums, and regrets, and disappointments,  and hormones, and screaming, and name calling, and struggles. YES.  But you know what, I don't think there was ever a time when either one of us ever uttered the word divorce.  There were times when we might have asked "Do you want to leave or do you want me to leave?"  But neither one of us ever used the threat of divorce.  We both believed that was never an option.  There was a confidence and security in knowing that.

Have we been married 32 years because Brett married a great wife? NO.   Have we been married 32 years because I  married a perfect man?  No, but I have been married to a man who almost every day for 32 years has made me laugh about something.  I have been married to a man, that for 32 years, I have watched God shape and mold.  I have watched God mold him into a great husband, a great father, and a great spiritual leader.  I have watched God mold and shape him into a man of great character and integrity, and I have watched God take Brett's servants heart and use it in great ways.

So what is the secret to 32 years?  God working in both our lives, and a man willing to be lead by God.
Ephesians 5:23 "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself it's Savior."

Thank you Brett for the first 32 years I can't wait to see what the next 32 hold.  I LOVE YOU!  Happy Anniversary!!!
Thanks for reading.

Yes those are hats and baby blue tuxes