Happy Anniversary!

Today my husband and I celebrate our 9th Anniversary. He is my perfect partner in so many ways and I truly can't imagine life without him. Our marriage has weathered storms like graduate school, surgery, difficult pregnancy, parenting two kids, moving, starting a new business, and the pulls of extended family. These storms though did not leave us hail damaged or wind worn, instead they left in their wake a flood of commitment, respect and love. I found the words to the closing prayer given at our wedding and was amazed to find that even nine years later the words rang so true.

"O God of Love, You have established marriage for the welfare and happiness of all. It was Your plan and only with Your help can we work it out with joy. You were the one who said "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." By bringing us together as husbands and wives You have doubled our joys since the happiness of one is the happiness of the other and our burdens now are halved since when we share them, we divide the load.

Bless Eric and sustain him in all the responsibilities and pressures of daily life. May he find strength in knowing You intimately and may his strength be Kara's protection, his character be her boast and pride. Dear Lord enable Eric to love in such a way that Kara will find in him an example of Your love. A giving, self-sacrificing love; full of strength and honesty tempered with compassion.

Bless Kara, give her a tenderness that will make her great, a deep sense of understanding & a strong faith in You. Give her that inner beauty of soul that never fades. The unfading beauty of a gently and humble spirit, which is of great worth in Your sight.

Preserve them from expecting that perfection which belongs to You alone. Enable them to minimize each other's weakness, by learning to praise and magnify one another's strong points and gifts. Help them to see each other through a lover's kind and patient eyes. Give them enough tears to keep them tender, enough hurts to keep them human, enough failures to keep them constantly dependent on Thee, and enough wisdom to humbly see You as the source of all their success. Make sure they walk with You. May they never take each other's love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims "out of all this world, you have chosen me."

And when life is done and the sun is setting may they be found then, as now,hand in hand, thanking God for each other. May they serve You happily,faithfully, together, until the last one shall commit the other to Your eternal care, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

I love you Eric, and I look forward to what God has in store for our next 9 years and the 99 more after that! I hope you look at the verse engraved in your wedding band (Philippians 1:3) and know that it is truer today than yesterday and even more tomorrow.



Our Honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, Sept. 1999