That picture was taken last week right after we had finalized Judah’s adoption over the phone with a judge in Florida. If you had been there and blinked you would have missed the entire thing. That’s okay – Josh keeps telling me Judah’s REAL gotcha day happened several months ago…

Ten years of marriage seems pretty significant, don’t you think? A big milestone – proof that the vows taken by kids on an August day in Tacoma really weren’t a joke. And, believe me, we were kids. Fresh out of college, all kinds of plans and dreams. The world was at our feet and we were going to take it by storm. And we did! St Louis, England, Scotland – moving every few years, meeting all kinds of people, traveling, traveling, traveling.

We celebrated our fifth anniversary traipsing around bella Italia, eating pasta, drinking wine at the Acropolis and roaming the streets of the most beautiful country in the world. We had hardly a care in the world – the biggest burden was “The PhD” and that was well on its way. It wasn’t yet time to worry about where we were going to end up after Scotland and we loved our lives, our friends and our church.

Now, five years later, our lives have been turned upside down by pain and the reality of looking for God when He’s nowhere to be found and then, suddenly, finding Him and finding joy. Josh has a “real job.” I am a mommy, and Judah, who didn’t even exist last year, has changed everything.

We spent our anniversary evening in Woodland Park, about as small town as you get in Colorado. The first thing our waitress said to us was, “We’re out of pork, beef and chicken…would you like fish?” So, instead of pizza from Napoli we choked down dry fish. I wondered for a moment if I really did wish to be in Italy, trying on the feeling for size – it’s a familiar one after all! But it didn’t take me long to shed it. I wouldn’t change a thing. Ten years of loving the same good man, and of proving the faithful love of a kind Father. If ten years means a good life, a beautiful little boy to love and even more happiness with the guy I married when I was just a kid, then I’ll take it. Dry fish and all.