15 Years Later.....

When you are 20 years old and planning the songs to be sang in your wedding....they have meaning based upon that time in your life....in reflecting on our wedding day 15 years ago and those very songs...they have so much more meaning today.

Standing Right Next to Me (from the 8 seconds movie soundtrack) - describes exactly how I felt the day that I met Mike. My grandmother had always told me that when she met my grandfather she knew immediately that she would marry him someday. And after our first date, I told my college friends....I know that I will marry him...of course they thought I had lost my mind...but when I called Amy Lovell Copeland that following summer to ask her to be in my wedding she could yet couldn't believe it all at the same time.

Go There With You (by Steven Curtis Chapman) - this song has more meaning today then I could have imagined. Our first 15 years have been a journey and I can say that I don't regret a single moment of it.

I know you've heard me say these words before
But every time I say I love you the words mean something more
I spoke them as a promise right from the start
I said death would be the only thing that could tear us apart
And now that you are standing on the edge of the unknown
I love you means I'll be with you wherever you must go

Standing on The Edge of the Unknown............

1. Moving to Omaha as newlyweds where I knew only a handful of people.


2. Spending our 2nd wedding anniversary in a moving truck as we relocated to Phoenix, Arizona.


3. Getting to AZ and finding out that UPS was going on strike and "that job" that you had moved there for wasn't going to start for another 60 days.....so you become a used car salesman just to get by.


4. Having your first child and discovering she can't live in AZ due to health issues and being told "your career with UPS is over" if you leave....yet through perseverance calling the KS district of the company and securing a position all on your own....and discovering in the process that baby #2 is on the way....and by the way, 18 years later still with UPS.
   


5. Wanting Baby #3 and it taking over 2 years for him...after God so kindly blessed you with daughters 14 months apart 7 years earlier....proving he does have a plan.


6. Discovering a lump in your breast that ends up being a tumor...benign....yet 3 months later starts growing....surgery to remove...still benign...but indications that the future may result in a malignancy if not monitored.

And some of the precious memories from that day.......

• 3 days before the big day, Mike and I arguing over who knows what and my parents jokingly saying "are we going to have a wedding in 2 days?"


• 2 days before, Mike surprises me with a dress that I had mentioned over the phone seeing that would be "perfect for our rehearsal" if I hadn't already bought a dress....so he calls my best friend, Desiree Mulligan, and sends her on a mission to find it....and I proclaim "we can't afford it".


• The night before our wedding at our rehearsal dinner, Mike gets down on one knee...proposes all over again all while giving me a bigger engagement ring....and it is on video me saying "we can't afford it"......so my guess would be that argument 3 days prior must have had to do with money - hahaha.


• My dear friend Jennifer Starforth running me everywhere the morning of the big day.


• My brother and brother-in-law making me happy by wearing that Pink vest and bow tie because I asked them too.


• Our friends saran wrapping the truck shut and the amount of time to get it undone.


• Spending so much time with our guests that we forgot to eat and ended up at Burger King in our wedding clothes...and the looks on the employee's faces.


• Negotiating with my mother that "I would walk down the aisle to 'Lane's Song' from the 8 seconds soundtrack rather then the traditional wedding march" and in exchange she could dress my bridesmaids in the style of dress she preferred.........sorry girls!


• Paying my husband back for that "ring" surprise by switching our wedding "exit" song to Shaina Twain's "Any Man of Mine" and throwing the entire crowd for a loop....yet the looks on our faces and the eruption of laughter and cheers on our wedding video are priceless. And yes....hearing that song to this day takes me back to that exact moment.

Happy Anniversary to the MAN that has proved to me that LOVE DOES EXIST, that HE CAN WALK THE LINE and that through it all he will GO THERE with me. I LOVE YOU!