17 years...

May 31st was our 17 year anniversary. That means that this August will mark our 21st year together.  Ken and I promised that we would marry each other when I was 16 and he was 20. It was one week before he went away to Redeemer. He was in school the whole time we dated, but came home every weekend. We were so young and thought we were so old and knew pretty much everything. Not so much! (:

Ken and I traveled from Grand Rapids to St Thomas and then through to New Jersey in May. We had a lot of quiet hours to chat. It was nice! (:

As we drove, we smiled about the places we drove through. We passed through the place that Ken went to University, where we stayed the first night of our honeymoon, were we lived at his first teaching job, then second, then third and fourth! (:  We lived in more than a handful of houses in our first years of marriage. We know every Value Village from Sarnia to Niagara Falls. Just so you know! (:

The more I thought about our lives, the more I wanted to write down where we started, where we went and where we are now. It's been quite a journey in so many ways.

• We both grew up in the St Thomas area.
• May 31, 1997, we got married in St Thomas. I lived with my parents until the day we got married. It was so exciting to move into our own place. I am wondering if I may encourage my kids to move out on their own before they get married. It would be good for them!   
• January of 1998, (I was about 28 weeks pregnant with Josh.) we moved to Millgrove, which is very close to Hamilton. Ken taught at an itty-bitty Christan school from January to June. 
• June 1998, we moved back to St Thomas for the summer in between apartments. We lived in the St Thomas parsonage.  Josh was a few months old. 
• July 1998, we moved to Vineland and Ken taught 6th grade at Heritage. It makes me smile to think of Ken teaching 6th. He is much more of a high school kinda guy. We lived on a beautiful fruit farm there. I think looking back that was by far our hardest year. I never really settled.   
• In July of 1999, we moved back home to St Thomas. Ken got a job at Providence Reformed Collegiate. We knew this is where we would end up. It had to be! (: We started in an apartment just down the street from where I spent the first 8 year of my life. It was just up and down the hill from my parents and church. It's my "home" side of town and always will be. 
• A few short months after we moved into that apartment, Ken's parents' rental house down the road from the farm opened up and we were THRILLED to move in there. I look back at those years as some of the best years of our lives in a certain way. Josh was our only child for a about 4 years. Even though it was hard on my heart to long for another baby, it was a blessing. Josh and I spent so much time together and it was special. We spent time walking, coloring, doing playdough, biking and napping! (:  Ken, his brother Tim, his sister Aileen and I spent summers playing badminton outside in the back yard. We had a pretty sweet court. We would play late when the air was still. We were quite competitive.  Ken and I would play tennis after school, while Josh played with his cars on the side, when we could. A lot of coffee time was spent at the farm with Ken's parents. Micah was a baby there. It makes me smile writing this. Those were great carefree years! (: 
• In December of 2002, when Micah was almost a year old, we bought our first house across the street from my parents. 
• August of 2007, Ken started teaching at Oxford Reformed Christian School. I know this isn't a house move, but it was still a big move! (:  It was about 40 minutes from St Thomas, but we stayed put. It made sense to stay living by church and family! (: 
• July of 2012, we moved to Grand Rapids, MI. 
• (Somewhere in there we stayed in my parents basement for a few week in between apartments, but I can't remember when it was. Things are getting a little fuzzy.)

So there you go - 8 houses, plus my parent's basement! (: I had thoughts of going around and taking pictures of all of these houses. That would be so fun for memories sake! Maybe some day. 

I look back at our lives and it makes me smile.  I think back to that naive promise we made at 16 and 20 years old on the railroad tracks that were behind his parents' rental house. (It was the house that we lived in 6 years later.) I think of the years we spent living away from St Thomas trying to find our footing. I think of the carefree times that we spent out in the country back home. I also think of the times of deep darkness (as well as incredible joy) we walked through starting that November day in 2007. Then I think of where we are today.

The word that comes to my mind is GRACE. It's all grace. I thank the Lord for the past 21 years that I have walked this life with Ken.  The Lord has been so kind and has given us a beautiful marriage that we don't take for granted.  Not all of our years have been easy, but God has used those hard ones along with the easy ones to grow us closer and more connected than I could have ever imagined. The depth of friendship, love and commitment that we share now, makes those wedding vows that were said on May 31 1997 look rather insignificant.

(Blogger needs some nice smiley faces because I would put a really big one after that last sentence. Just so you know!)