Tomorrow is my 11th Anniversary to my beloved.  I'm excited because we're going to drop the kids off at my mom's and go to a Motorhome Show (or something like that... I don't know what they call them... a;sldkjf;asdlfj).  Funny how our dream is to take the kids for a year in one of those, and I've never even been in one!  Anyway, we're going to go to breakfast first, then to the show, and then pick up the kids on the way home to get the little ones down for naps.  It won't be a long day, but I'm so looking forward to the time I'll get to spend with him.

When I look back on the past 11 years, it's amazing how time has flown by and how much we've changed.  I actually lived with Mike 2 years before we got married.  When I think back to the arrangement, I can't believe that was us.  I really didn't think anything of it at the time... it just wasn't a big deal.  The thought of one of my children doing that... well, I just can't believe how different I was.

You know, when I stood before the wedding guests, I really was making a commitment to be with Mike forever... but because there wasn't a realationship with the Lord then, I never felt "accountable" for what I was saying.  I can't help but think about what God saw as He looked down on two unsuspecting people that day.  You see, I knew Mike and I would make beautiful music together... but only God could've seen the complete symphony that would be ours.

God is so amazing isn't He?  I wish I could tell you that my husband and I that we kissed each other at the alter for the first time... that our families and friends knew we were meant for each other... or that we were first time lovers... That is not our story, however.  I talk little about it, not so much because I'm ashamed, but because I don't even recognize those people anymore.  It seems as though it was from a different life...
and then I remember...
it was...
it was a life in the darkness...
a life with so much pain and emptiness...
and we found comfort in each other...
until we found it in the Lord.

When I met Mike, I believed in God, as did he, but it was me who insisted we go to church because of his son.  Our spiritual life was no more than an occasional Sunday.  Then, about seven years ago, we began going to a different church and we began to change... and for the first time, we loved Someone more than each other... we were no longer first, but second after the One who had brought us together...
the One who saw so much more...
the One who created us with a plan...
and knitted our hearts together with His thread.

How awesome is our God!  How humbling is His grace!  I don't deserve this man I've been given, but I can't tell you how thankful I am to have had the time I've had with him on this earth.  I pray that it won't end any time soon, but I know that I've already been blessed more than I ever could've dreamed as a little girl, for I never understood the magnitude of what God could do... until I look back on two sinners' lives...
and how God changed them.

In Him,
Amy