Let me tell you about him....we met the summer that he was 16 years old. Yes, we've been together that long....42 years this August...we met at a Salvation Army camp for underprivileged kids. We were both counselors. We were both kind of shy...it took us the whole month before we finally got together, before we experienced our very first kiss, down on the beach...the very last night before camp ended! Unheard of these days,..these days people barely know each other before 'hopping in the sack'....never mind a first kiss!
Donald is a pretty good guy.....when we first met, obviously he was still in high school. He had plans though...he wanted to work in a bank. So, before he even graduated he had been hired for a job as a teller in a local trust company..which is just like a bank. Before we got married, he bought his first car...unfortunately, a few months before we married he was in a car accident and totaled it...but he soon got another.
After we married, we decided that we didn't want to wait too long before we started our family....6 months later we were expecting our first. Nine months later we had our first daughter and named her Leslie. It was after this that Don decided that he wanted to pursue his CGA designation. CGA stands for certified general accountant. It was a very long road...taking one course at a time....eleven years later he finally graduated! Along the way he left the trust company, first working in the office of a food manufacturing place, then in a company that manufactured things out of iron. When that place closed down he got the job he has now....a pricing analyst with a company that makes landing gear for the big airplanes....
At home, we had our daughter and two years later our son, Ryan....three years after that I miscarried our third child at eighteen weeks...an extremely difficult time for the both of us. It was a few years after all this that we decided to become foster parents. We never went into fostering with the idea of adopting....and although about twenty five went through our home in the 19 years that we fostered...we ended up being allowed to keep and adopt seven. We became a family of eleven! When we married 39 years ago it never entered our minds how many children we would have...I don't think it was quite that many...but God had different plans. He decided that our family would be made up of both birth and adopted children. The first two, a boy named Corey and then a girl , named Lauren, came in the same year...the boy was two and the girl, who came three months later was a new born. Some more children passed through our doors and then our next son , Paul came and stayed...actually he stayed for a couple of months...went and lived with a quasi family member for a few months and when that didn't work out came back to us...meanwhile this little guy's younger sister ,Maya was born and came to stay...plus his younger brother, Ben almost a year later. Ben had been living with his birth father for awhile but then came for a visit and stayed. Though Ben and Maya were only 13 months apart ,he was delayed so it was like having twins! When Maya was about eight, we adopted again...this time a seven year old girl, named Emma. A few years later, after we had stopped fostering, we were called about taking a 10 year old girl, named Megan
..half sibling to three of our other children.....and that is how our family grew. Through it all, Don and I have had a really good marriage. I could not have asked for a better helpmate, if I had written up the requirements myself. He has loved me through thick and thin, and after all these years I still feel a joy in my heart when he comes through the door...we enjoy spending time together and even though the kids get upset when we want to go on trips by ourselves, we feel it's necessary....after all, when the kids are (hopefully) all moved out, Lord willing, we will still have each other...to love and to cherish,...til death do us part.
Happy Anniversary to my best friend....I doubt will have 39 more....but I'll take as many as I can...
I'm posting this tonight cause the grand kids are coming tomorrow..and staying overnite...cause it's their parents Anniversay...the day before ours...yes,..June is a popular month!
3 comments:
Congratulations, Marie and Don! These days, thirty-nine months is seen as an accomplishment - 39 years should be praised, blessed and much lauded! That solid relationship, the give and take and determination to love one another no matter what is such an incredible example for your kids.
Maybe not 39 more (though you never know!) but certainly a lifetime. Blessings!
Happy anniversary!! Thanks for sharing about the ups and downs of your wonderful time together. Enjoy celebrating!!
WOW! you all have crammed a lot of great things into your 42 years. We had our 41st anniversary last week. What a lovely tribute to marriage. I'm afraid few marriages of this next generation will ever make it to 42 years. Blessings!
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