Happy Anniversary

September 1, 2006....

Twelve years ago today, we boarded a plane for Hungary - exactly seven months from our first date, and married less than week. I had a little moment of panic when the plane doors closed and we backed away from the gate - it was only my second international flight, and we had just said goodbye for the next year to everyone we knew! And we had only been married for FIVE DAYS! - But mostly there was excitement about the adventure before us. There is a country song that was popular at the time - Would You Go with Me, by Josh Turner - that was so cheesy, but felt perfect for that moment:

🎶 “If I gave you my hand would you take it

And make me the happiest man in the world?

If I told you my heart couldn't beat one more minute without you, girl,

Would you accompany me to the edge of the sea,

Help me tie up the ends of a dream?

I gotta know, would you go with me?

I love you so, so would you go with me?“🎶

Sort of a modern day Naomi and Ruth: "Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16). We were in this together.

That first year, we spent Christmas in Rome and traveled to Venice and Prague and all over Hungary. Over the next 11 years, we traversed the US - Maine and Texas, Florida and Hawaii - and spent a few months in India. We had four kids! We moved to Iowa, then Kansas - Brandon finished his medical training and opened a practice.

After a dozen years together, I still want to go with him! Happy Anniversary of the day we boarded the first plane ✈️ Let’s never stop adventuring together!