I had a very happy childhood growing up.  I had kind older siblings and a best friend in my twin brother!  I had a loving mother and father.  Some of my adolescent years were spent with my grandmother living with us.  I was surrounded by loving family.  We ate together, played together, and went to church together.  One of my fondest memories growing up is sitting in church with my parents.  As I grew older my father was not as committed to going with us, but I still remember feeling so happy when we were all together on "our" pew in our small church.  We always won the "mother with the most children" awards on Mother's Day because we were the largest family most of the time! 

One of my girlhood fantasies was to imagine what it would be like to sit in church with my husband and children.  Some Sundays when I wasn't particularly focused on the preaching (Lord forgive me!) I would try to visualize myself grown up and sitting with six or seven children spread out around me and my husband.  Sometimes he would have straight hair and sometimes curly.  Sometimes the kids were all twins and sometimes they were stair-stepped.  I had so much fun imagining my life as a mom and wife in church.

Oh, I never knew just how wonderfully God was going to bless this girl's heart!  I waited what seemed like forever to meet my husband.  As I said, I grew up in a small church and there were only a few guys available, none of whom were interested in me!  Then I moved to a more rural county for a teaching job, and found myself attending an even smaller church with NO available men! And really there were no available Christian men in the whole county as far as I know, and believe me, I searched!  God put me there, I believe, to teach me that He was all I ever needed.  I didn't need to imagine myself with a handsome husband and well behaved children to be happy.  I finally learned that I would never be happy unless I was happy with Him and Him alone!  Finally at age 26 I learned and embraced this wonderful Truth!

So, let me just say that God waited until the perfect time before He sent my dream man!  One morning when I was sitting in that little tiny church in came a very handsome, young man!  He was going to be preaching for our pastor who was on vacation.  Before the preaching, this handsome young man steps up to the pulpit with a guitar to share a song (he wrote!) before he preached.  Did I mention that was the other part of my fantasy?  You see my mom played piano for our church.  I dreamed that I would one day learn to play the piano and my husband would play guitar.  So now this handsome, young man is playing the guitar and singing with a very soothing voice!  Okay, you can imagine that I am now pinching myself.  Seriously, this is my exact prayer.  "Oh Heavenly Father, I want a husband just like that!"  My next thoughts were, "Please help me to focus on your word and not him!"  And God did!   And He continued to answer those prayers for a year.  The handsome young man became the full time pastor when our former pastor retired two months after his vacation!

A year later and I am still praying both prayers. God is working in both our hearts preparing us for each other.  Nine years ago on this day, my darling husband and I committed our lives to following God together!  What a wonderful and glorious answer to my prayers!  It is ironic that the one important part of the dream I rarely experience is sitting together!    There are occasions and I enjoy them!

So the girls and I sit in the front row (because that is as close as I can get to him) and I wonder what they imagine for their futures.  Are they dreaming that one day their husband may be a preacher?  Are they hoping that instead he will be sitting with them?  I pray they learn at much earlier age than I did that God is all they need and more than they deserve.  But I also pray that they will be thankful, as their mother is thankful, for every blessing He gives them!

I love you Alpheus! Happy Anniversary!  Your Eva

Here are the lovely roses my darling gave me. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner at Red Lobster and a visit to the Christian Bookstore where I found 2 great kids books, a cd for me to sing at church, and a new Fernando Ortega cd!  Alpheus got a few things too! We at dinner on Friday the 5th but the girls made cards for us on both days and sang to us several times! Cutie pies!  (Thanks Mom and Dad for the card and gift!  Love you!)