History

On this day 28 years ago, this young skinny smiling teenager asked me if I wanted to wear his class ring and be his girlfriend. We were on our way to church youth group after he picked me up in his little brown Datsun Hatchback he called "Betsy". LOL I was so surprised when he asked me because some days/weeks before we had a discussion in which he indicated that the question would probably not be asked any time soon. So we were just hanging out and having fun together at that point. I of course thought we would end up married but just left it as a matter of prayer. I was so excited when he handed me that class ring. (I still have it of course.) I wore it proudly to youth group that night with a smile on my face. Gosh we were both so young and skinny then. LOL Yes that was April 8, 1981. Seems like forever ago. At some point after that we BOTH knew we would be getting married. So in a little more than two years later, on June 4, 1983 (just 8 days after I graduated from high school) we tied the knot. I never was one of those little girls who planned their weddings out their entire lives. I just knew I wanted to be married to Todd and the details weren't really that important to me. I knew the dress was right when I tried it on. I had tried many on that day but when I put mine on I just knew it was the one. Layers of ruffled lace and long sleeves! It was the 80's people. But the rest of the details were really in the background and the important thing was just the two of us becoming one. We lived in a small mobile home and worked jobs and were happy. We decided we would wait two years before starting our family. But as you know with our family plans are made to be changed around here. So in actuality 7 months after we were married I became pregnant with our baby girl. Casey was born in October of 1984. She was tiny (well I thought she was tiny at 6 pounds 5 ounces-little did I know babies could be tinier than that, say 2 pounds, 2 ounces. but that's another story). We were so young to be parents but loved her with everything and did our best to take care of her with God's help. Then three years later in December of 1987, our first son came along. He weighed exactly the same as his sister and we were greatly blessed to have these two wonderful children. Much to our surprise four years later another blessing, Joshua came into our family. After Casey was born I quit my job and was a stay at home mom. Of course to help pay the bills and so we could actually eat, I had a day care center in my home. Our kids always had other kids to play with. They enjoyed it. They never complained about having to share or needing their space. They just enjoyed the extra playmates and Casey enjoyed having a large classroom full of kids to teach! Then one day, they all grew up. I don't know how it happened really. One day Casey was a mom, Mark was at college, and Josh was on the High School Baseball team. Gosh, funny how it all started that one night before church on this very day 28 years ago.