That Time of Year

Even if I didn't have a calender, I'd know that it was a special time of year for our family, because these crazy pink flowers are blooming again. I've heard them called "resurrection lilies," "surprise lilies," and "naked lady lilies." I haven't decided which name is the most official. Everyone has their favorite. Whatever they're called, quite a few of them decorated my wedding cake, and that's what I'll always think about when I see them.

Fourteen years ago today, Aaron and I were married in our church in western Oklahoma. We honeymooned at a nearby lake where a friend let us stay in their little cabin, because as 19 and 20 year old college students, our funds were limited. Very limited. We purchased a 1969 mobile home in Stillwater, and lived in that little trailer for the next three years while we finished school.

Our lives went, more or less, according to our plans at the time. Finish college- get jobs- have kids- live in a bigger house. (Did I mention it was a trailer from the sixties? It really was all that you might imagine from those words.) Little by little, as we went on through our days, weeks, years - our plans changed. Now we find ourselves on the brink of living in something that is even smaller than our first home. It's much smaller, actually.

I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me about this crazy scheme on a sunny day fourteen years ago, as we ran around the church making sure everything was ready for the afternoon's ceremony. There were relatives to visit, cakes to frost, punch to thaw, lights to check, flowers to pin, friends to hug...So possibly, I wouldn't have even heard you.

But I'd like to think that even then I would've told you exactly what I say now. Aaron is one of the most wonderful men on the planet, and I trust him as much as any human being can reasonably expect to trust any other human being. If he is with me, I'm not worried, period, no matter what we face in the future.

More importantly, I believe that getting out there and doing whatever God sets in front of us to do will be the most rewarding experience we've ever had (you know, bar the birth and raising of our children). No matter what the future holds (and I'm an imaginative pessimist, so if you're worried about it, I probably am too) I will be holding onto the hands of my Savior and my husband. Together we'll figure it out.