Happy Anniversary, Thomas!

Today Thomas and I celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary.  It is hard to believe we have been married over half our lives, almost a quarter of a century.  

Marriage has been both harder and more wonderful than I ever imagined - harder because I went into marriage more broken, more immature than I  realized.  More wonderful because Thomas' unwavering love has been a channel of joy and hope and healing deeper than I could have hoped for.

When I look back on the past 24 years, the words of Psalm 23 come to mind.  "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."  Objectively, I can remember difficult days - times when money was very tight, times when we were rehashing the same conflict for the 40th time, times when we were discouraged, times of grief.  But when I look back, I am amazed at the goodness and mercy which has followed us.  I can say whole-heartedly "Blessed am I among women."

Thank you, Thomas!  I love you.  I have no desire to go back to the days of our youth, but I am eager to run "farther up and farther in" with you.

Raising children has been a blast. Here are the first four on Father's Day at Prince Solms.

And here's the fifth child ...

Venice 2008. Photo by John Patrick, a 5 year-old view of his parents.