nine years

Nate and I celebrated our ninth anniversary a few months ago by pushing for Nate to be released from hospital after a four night stay. He was sick with malaria that he must have gotten from a mosquito bite on our last night in Mozambique. What a going away present!

Together in Nate's hospital bed.

So due to all of that fun, we forgot about our anniversary tradition - to sum up our year of marriage in one word. We've done this each year around our anniversary and have so far come up with the words

1. revealing; 2. adventure; 3. abundant; 4. growth; 5. progress; 6. steady; 7. settling; and 8. building. After a couple of people asked us about our ninth anniversary word (thanks Amy and Wooz) we finally discussed it on the weekend while driving to Michigan. Not the usual romantic setting for choosing our word (read: four kids in the car), but still enjoyable just the same :)

This year we summed up our marriage with the word "unwavering". As we've caught up with friends in the States, a number of people have asked us how our marriage is going overseas. Without hesitation I can answer: although all else might be going wrong around me, God is my Rock, and my marriage is steadfast.

That's not to say that Nate and I don't have issues to work through. In fact - other than our first revealing year of marriage (note the above summary word) this year's furlough may have presented us with more things to work through together than any other year of marriage. Even so - no matter what happens, we are in this together.

By the grace of God we talk together, pray together, raise our children together and love being together. Our commitment to each other will never change as long as we keep our eyes fixed on God. He is faithful, and will answer those who call to him. One of my constant prayers is that God would keep us faithful to Him and each other, all of our days.

It makes it all the more sweet to be in such a firm commitment with my best friend, who still makes my heart skip a beat when he enters the room.