When we said "I Do", we had no clue the odds were so stacked against us. Anyone placing a bet in Las Vegas that day would have bet against us for sure. It was a second marriage for both of us and many would say we were both on 'the rebound', we lived together before our trip to the Justice of the Peace (which drastically worsens those odds), and I was expecting my second child. I was barely 25 and he had just turned 30. The rate of success for first marriages is barely 50% and the failure rate of second ones is over 75%. We shouldn't have made it, according to the odds.

I have no clue what that Justice of the Peace said, what questions he asked. We hurriedly said yes to them all. With stars in our eyes. We'd known each other for a number of years, I knew what he was made of, and 'considering the odds' never occurred to me. I just was crazy in love with him, enough to think he looked completely dashing in that lovely blue polyester suit, and mountain man beard. I believe he told me I looked beautiful that day, in my homemade double knit pink maternity dress.

That we're here, together today, to tell the story is a testament, not of our grit, but of God's grace, his power in our lives. How many times I've sat and listened to parents tell me they aren't so sure of the person their child has chosen to spend their life with; he or she doesn't have the right background, or education, or looks, or potential, or mother! His personality is too strong for hers, or she's the wrong religion, or or or or.

If God could take the two of us, hold us together through the years of raising three kids, several corporate moves across the country, stretched finances, family strains, and times when each of us was less than easy to love, he can do anything. Twenty-seven years ago we said "I Do", not having a clue. Thank God, literally, He was in that courthouse basement too, saying "they probably won't, but I Will." The knowledge that we will be together til one of us takes that last breath, no matter what, there's no gift that can top that rock-solid confidence in each other, but better yet, in a God who has been with us through the years, beating the odds one year at a time. Here's to at least twenty-seven more, the three of us.

Labels: Family Affair, Glimpse of the Heart