17 years

Today David and I celebrate 17 years of marriage! Yes, we got married young. God has done much to work in our hearts and lives through these 17 years. Today we had to run errands in Kampala with our kids, but we are trying to enjoy and make the most of this time together. Bad traffic provides opportunity for plenty of time together in the van. Haha In the photo below we are at a mall in Kampala. 

Early on in marriage God began to open our eyes to our sin and selfishness showing us more and more our need for Jesus as our Savior. We also have grown much in our dependence upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to truly love one another. Our 17 years of marriage is not a fairy tale story of 2 good people living happily ever after. Instead it is a story of two sinners learning more and more about the love and forgiveness we have received from God, and learning to extend that grace to each other. 

You would think that after 17 years of learning to love as we have been loved we would have made much progress. But our last year of moving away the support of family, church and friends to a foreign country, living in the middle of a children's home, starting new jobs, working together, and learning a new culture has revealed another layer of our brokenness and selfishness. We are continuing to learn how to love one another in the midst of stress and struggle. We are both learning to live with a greater level of dependence upon God as we see our own fallenness. In our weakness, He has been strong. Today we celebrate the 17 years that God has graciously taught us more about his love through our marriage.