Thought you'd get a kick out of looking back at us 18 years ago. How young we look and how much has happened in the time since! This is the verse currently on an index card in front of my computer screen:
Proverbs 16:9, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps".
Andrew and I were just reminiscing about the plans we had 18 years ago and how we could never in a million years have guessed what the future held. How we can look back with joy and thanksgiving at the truth of
Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
I also marvel how God uses our past to prepare us for our future. In ways unknown and unseen to us things just "happen" to work out.
Eighteen years ago Andrew had just come to the US a few weeks prior to our wedding. We had met several years previously and had corresponded primarily via snailmail--no internet or email or even phone service in the "old days"! The summer before our wedding I went to the UK to visit him and we got engaged. We saw each other again briefly for a few weeks in January (I can't recall exactly why he came over and left again) before he came over permanently just before the big day.
He arrived with barely the equivalent of a high school education, no job, one suitcase, and about $400 in cash. Good thing I was employed at a steady job as a nurse and had a small savings account. You know, now that I'm a parent, I'm not sure I would have been so welcoming to this strange boy as my parents were with their oldest and first child getting married! If they didn't approve they never said a word to me which was probably a good thing, because I, with the confidence of youth and the blindness of love, would have gone ahead and done what I wanted anyway!
But the most important thing that made the odds of this relationship even surviving the honeymoon was that we both loved the Lord, wanted to live our lives for Him, and believed He was calling us to get married.
Andrew loved radio, specifically Christian radio, and had been working in that field for several years. He found a job as a DJ in a decent sized city with a great station within a few months. I found it very easy to find a job as a nurse--one of the benefits to that profession. Andrew quickly realized there wasn't much opportunity, and certainly not much money, in staying on the radio, so he decided to go to school, starting first with a goal of a bachelors degree in communications while continuting part time on air. Four years seemed far away anyway and that was a good goal to start with.
We were enjoying married life and were able to buy our first home and travel quite a bit. And as the four years passed by Andrew wasn't exactly sure what he could do with a bachelors degree unless he kept on going to school, because with a Master's degree there would be more options. So, he applied to 4 schools with graduate programs arounnd the country and the obvious choice was in Florida as they offered him a teaching assistantship which meant they would PAY him to go to school AND he would get FREE tuition! Of course, it also meant he would have to work and teach some classes while going to school full time, but it was just the two of us and again, it was very easy for me to find the job of my choosing.
This time my choice was to only work part-time in a different area of nursing. To make it easy, let me describe it as a place where colonoscopys are performed amongst other things! We both loved Florida, loved the freedom, loved the campus life, and our jobs. Soon Andrew began to realize he also loved to teach, but that would mean MORE years of school! He'd already been full time for 6 years, but we had a good thing going and Florida accepted him for the Ph. D program, so we kept on.
Finally, after 10 years of being a full time student he was done. He interviewed at several schools to teach, but the only one he really wanted was the one in Texas who made him an offer. Again, I found it easy to find a nursing job, and I stayed in the same field.
For the first time in our married life Andrew was working a job where I could work as little or as much as I wanted. We didn't have any kids, didn't know if we would, when Andrew started talking about adopting from China. Long story short, a year later we had our first daughter from China in our arms! Two years after that another daughter. The following year a son.
Today I am home full time with the kids. I don't miss working outside the home and the conflict I felt having someone else care for my child. I am so blessed! Yes, we've had to change our lifestyle to live on one wage. Yes, it's taken every spare penny and then some to bring our kids home. But I wouldn't change a thing. Not one thing. Except that I wish I'd taken some of that spending on "stuff" years ago and saved it for today. Kind of like this story Jesus tells from Matthew 13:44-46,
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
So what does the future hold for us? Well, of this I can be certain,
"In is heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps"
Lord, we thank You for 18 years, and trust our remaining steps to You. May we spend our time, energy, and resources on the only thing that really lasts--Your kingdom.
