Dear David,
Here’s a conglomerate of thoughts as we celebrate our 10 year anniversary. They aren’t smoothed out, maybe a little jumbled, but fun to think about.
“What first brought us together?”
Dance, friendship, attraction. Our close friends were a part of all of that too! God is good, and has good plans for your life. Seek Him first and all else will be added to you.
I remembered that the most important part of our wedding to Jenni was not her dress, not the venue, not the cake, and not the ring—it was the people. When she told me that, I found myself astonished by her heart.
I’m thankful that a decade later, our celebration included people at its center. Our anniversary would not be complete without spending time with those who have supported us for the past ten years. What a great gift to have nearly everyone in our original wedding party and our closest friends and family join us in a reunion.
January blurred by along with my birthday celebrations. I’m so thankful for Jenni who goes above and beyond to kick-start another year of my life with celebrations.
My goal for Christmas 2014 was to be purposeful and peaceful.
I made a conscious decision to not fill our calendar to the brim, and was a little more selective on things like treats to make, decorating, and all the Christmas traditions that are fun but not absolutely necessary.
Here’s mommy’s birthday video for you.
I knew of Leah through Thuy since they both lived in McNary Hall at Oregon State University. I’ll admit that I was jealous that they had a tight-knit group that got to experience new things together. I was just getting started learning ballroom dancing, but I had no other friends who did, so I went on my own. Thuy, Leah, and their other friends went together and benefited from exchanging notes and learning from one another. I knew that they would all grow quickly. And they did. They moved up into the performance team not long after. I wished I had been on the team the same year as them.
[flv:kadie7year.flv 630 354]
After ten years of employment at Vernier, each employee receives a four-week sabbatical. I remember thinking, wow, that’s awesome! What would I do with four weeks off? And now, here I am, at the end of my sabbatical thinking, “Wow, that went by fast. What did I do?”
Lamont and I work in the same department at Vernier, but I didn’t know him until we sat beside each other at a Blazer game. Not long after, I saw him in passing at church, and we began chatting here and there.
I learned that he had been with his girlfriend for several years and he had two beautiful little daughters near the same age as my own daughters. I remember praying that he would marry his girlfriend someday. Not only was that prayer answered several years later, Jenni and I were invited to be their wedding photographers.
We couldn’t be happier for the both of them.