Thursday, March 22, 2012

Andrew

I met my husband when I was fifteen years old at a Bible camp in southern Minnesota.  He was sixteen at the time and he was "THE" boy at summer camp.  Tall, tan, muscles everywhere, gorgeous smile.  At the time I had two very close friends- Liz and Jenna.  Liz and Jenna were beautiful and popular and every boy they came in contact with melted at the two of them.  Little bit of background on Liz and Jenna:  They stole the camp counselor's video camera every evening and taped themselves going to the bathroom and eating Little Debbie's in their sleeping bags and titled their adventures, "Live with Liz and Jenna!"  Not once......but every single summer they did this.  And every year they got funnier....and prettier....and togetherER.  Inseparable.  I'm sure you don't sense any jealousy there at all. :)
Anyway.
Andy was their type of guy and they were his type of girl, but God had another plan.  His plan was me, and I'm so glad He saw it through!  I'll never understand what my husband saw in me when I was fifteen. I closely resembled a twelve year old that might very well never hit puberty.  At 5'4'' , 85 lbs, and covered head to toe in freckles, I was hardly worthy to run the lights for the "Live with Liz and Jenna" show... but here we are!
Looooooooong story short- Andy and I wrote letters and emailed just about every day for two and a half years and then went to the same Bible College in central Iowa.  Yep, Iowa.  Two years later Andy proposed on the steps of the state capitol building, (yes Iowa has buildings) and we were married the following summer. I was nineteen and Andrew was twenty.  I've learned many hard lessons throughout our 7 years together, but God has continually shown me how to grow in my love for Andrew through my love for Him, and let me tell ya....it's worth it.  If you know Andy or I, you know we are both firstborn, headstrong, stubborn, fight to the death, competitive even if it's Tennis and neither of us could give a frog's nostril about Tennis, type people.  The ability to sleep in a trunk 6 months pregnant because I refused to give in to an argument about lumpy mashed potatoes can be debilitating to a marriage, but God has shown me the beauty in bringing two driven, crazy intense people together as well.  More about lessons later.

I'm only twenty-one and I can't pretend to give advice or counsel marriage after not quite three years of it, but I will promise without going into detail that my little three year old marriage has seen more than some lifetimes do, and I sincerely pray that the things I've learned and am learning will speak to someone out there who might be struggling with similar obstacles.

I'm reading this post and realizing that I'm writing in circles, and this type of disorganization normally drives me nuts, but think about it- this is a blog.  What in sam hill is a BLOG?  It's a weird word, and an even stranger concept. Ask my Granddaddy from Hurricane, Mississippi if he ever 'blogged' when he was young and he'd say, "No ma'am.  But I near reckon I prolly shot one er two of them in the crick."  Granddaddy shot everything in the crick.  Everything that was shot was shot in the crick. More about the crick later.

Points to be made here- God has a plan and He doesn't care how pretty you are, and for goodness gracious don't stand too close to the crick.




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