Last night was the party!

So last night, was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary party that we'd been planning for quite some time. I was so very, very pleased with how it turned out. I feel like I'll need to re-coop at home for a while, but it was all worth it. I'll share some pictures from our set-up and party and the letter below is one that I read to Mom and Dad during the program.

To another 30 years M&D!!

Dear Mom & Dad,

Last year is when it first occurred to me that your 30th anniversary was quickly approaching and how much I would love to put together an evening to celebrate the Lord’s faithfulness in your lives, in our lives as a family.

I was so naïve as a little girl….I measured all other families up to my own, and assumed that we were living the norm, that every little girl had the loving parents I did who would gladly make the sacrifices you made for all of us.

I have been given the most amazing foundation to pass on to my daughters, who will love to hear about how our winter family sleeps in the living room with sleeping bags. How Grandma Sue took out 18 years (and still going) of her life’s time to homeschool and shape their mom and her siblings.

Dad, I will tell them about how you’d take us for family drives to get ice-cream cones and listen to music. How family devotions were priority and how our crazy family actually just preferred sitting in the living room before bed and all talking….for hours. They’ll see first hand how goofy our family is, as I’m sure we’ll have many more Christmas morning rubber bb gun wars to come. I will tell them about every family adventure I can remember, but that won’t compare to the most important part.

The most valuable lesson I can teach them from your story, your marriage, is the Lord’s faithfulness to resurrect a dying marriage in those early days and the incredible masterpiece of ministry and family and love that was birthed from your willingness to surrender to his design and will for your lives as a couple, as one.

Your marriage wasn’t perfect, and you allowed us to see the imperfections. But you lived by example, you played together, and we watched you work together, I remember morning after morning finding you both in bed praying together. 24 years after your own wedding, the mirror of your marriage was what I looked for in a spouse and by the grace of God, I found. 4 years later, Aaron found his perfect match and the blessing of your faithfulness to each other continues to pour out on your children. Even yet to the next generation, your granddaughters are also living the blessing of your obedience to the Lord, it is their heritage.

I’ve watched you both love and minister and serve and give of yourselves for as long as I can remember. Dad, you have grown immensely, and the way I measure your growth is by how many less jokes about mom’s cooking you make now a days. And Mom, you are Dad’s right arm, and by right arm we all know I mean everything good, clean and well organized.

By the grace of God, this is your family today, well, a year ago at least. (picture of our family showed up on the projector)

I won’t set the glory on your shoulders, but I will praise my Lord who has created this good thing, and allowed me to bear witness to it.

To my role models, with all the love in my heart,
Happy Anniversary.