Opinion : ♪♫ Happy 25th Anniversary to us ♪♫

Back in June I wrote about how I was grateful for our family. Dean and I have been married for 25 years, Wednesday. That's a long time...and especially in marriages.

Unfortunately, there is a belief that 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and unfortunately I've seen enough marriages end. Fortunately, I've seen some go through major storms and somehow, they survived.

Over the last 25 years, we've raised 6 children, and still have 3 at home.

We've added one son-in-law, 2 daughters-in-law, and 2 granddaughters.

We've been through:

• 8 different jobs
• 7 different homes
• 10 surgeries
• the loss of 2 babies
• 20 years of homeschooling

We've experienced the loss of:

• 2 parents
• 3 grandparents
• one niece
• 3 aunts
• 3 uncles

We've attended 4 churches, 2 Sunday School departments, participated in 1 deaconship, and many other positions in said churches.

We've had probably more than 15 cars/trucks, survived 6 minor car accidents.

We've seen tons of awards in Dean's career (along with him quitting jobs twice, getting fired once and changing newspaper jobs a few more times).

We have shared in the experience of having a parent in a care center for the last 4 years, and caring for a parent at home.

We've experienced an ambulance ride and held our breath together as our 3 month old son was hospitalized for spinal meningitis.

We've experienced a helicopter ride to a hospital in hopes that we weren't losing a baby, and twice doctors were amazed that we didn't.

We've made numerous trips to the ER together, with children and parents.

We've experienced a psychiatric ward for the first time with a family member, and decided we'd both need one if we had to live in one.

We've seen the thrill of sending a fax and receiving one at our house, for the first time probably 20 years ago, and twice this year.

We've seen the birth of the internet and gone through probably more than 10 computers, 5 printers, and numerous cameras, and batteries, oh hundreds of batteries.

We've had 7 email addresses, 5 facebook pages, instant chat accounts, 2 websites and googled thousands of topics..

In the last two years, we've published over 7,400 stories, approved multiple classified ads and comments.

In all those events, and more, I think about the friends we've met in so many different places that have been with us along this journey. If I knew 25 years ago the journey we'd be taking, I'm not sure if I would have had the guts to embark on it.

In the richer and poorer, we've survived.

In the sickness and in health, we've made it out of every recovery room in one piece.

'Til death do us part, so far, we've managed NOT to kill each other :)

In all of these years, the things that I find are the most cherished, are the people that have crossed our paths.

In each joyful time, our friends would rejoice with us.

In the tearful time, there were many who would put their arm around us and weep with us.

In this journey together, we have been together longer than we've been apart. We've seen 25 years of history, both in the world around us, and in our small world.

As we look in wonder at all we've been through, we also know that in many of these situations God was always in control of our lives. Many times we wondered the where, how and whys of our situations, but I think in every one, we've found the humor.

After going this far, I look back, and realize one thing, marriage isn't for the faint of heart, or for whimps. It's not for the selfish or the greedy.

After visiting with one of my nearest and dearest friends last week, we both realized how much we knew when we got married and how many more questions we have now! We both came to the same conclusion that when we started this journey with our respective spouses, so many years ago, we we much more stubborn and sure of ourselves. Add a few decades of life, and life itself has knocked us around enough that when we look back we have to chuckle at how much we didn't know.

So, thank you all of our readers for becoming part of our journey, part of our history. This chapter of our lives together has been one of the most fascinating and fun parts of our lives together! Thanks for sharing it with us!

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