Thirteen

Dear Jeremy,

Today is our thirteenth anniversary.  We actually celebrated yesterday, with a beautiful ride out to Montauk on the scooter.  You were so sweet when you brought me to Levain Bakery in the Hamptons because you know just how much I love their chocolate chip cookies.  It would have been the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary, had they been opened.  But they were closed, and it wasn’t a huge deal.  Because all day, I was just soaking in the fact that I really truly love you with all my heart and that was what mattered most.  We rode a little further and had lunch at LUNCH Lobster Roll.  Then we rode out to Montauk and took in this incredibly paradise where we have been blessed to live.  It really was the perfect way to celebrate another year of marriage to you, my best friend.

Over the years, we’ve had so, so much to be thankful for.  And I just wanted to take a little time to reflect.  First off, I’m thankful that when we got married, we looked like teenagers.  I’m proud of the fact that we were actually both a very mature 23 years old.  And I’ll be honest.  I’m kind of amazed that we got through that first year as well as we did.  After our wedding, we moved out to New York for six months, then moved back to Michigan so that we both could finish and graduate from college.  Right before we graduated, we found out that we were pregnant and it was just around the same time that you would accept a job in Youth Ministry and we would move back out to New York.  To be honest, we had our ups and downs that year, how could we not have?  But by God’s grace, we made it through, learning things about each other and slowly but surely strengthening the incredible marriage that God blessed us with.

The pace of being in church ministry would challenge us in different ways each year.  We’d build relationships and bonds and add to our ministry load more and more each year, but it would be a great thing.  Because we both loved (and still love) serving God by loving and serving others and to this day it’s one of my favorite things about us.

I think we’d both agree that one of the best things we’ve done is to have and raise our two incredible kids.  It would be the hardest and best thing that we could do.  We’d continue to learn more about each other as we grew in our abilities to love and parent our children.

And who could have imagined that God would bless us in our marriage by letting us travel all over the world together?  Many of those trips were church related.  So we’d pack up ourselves and our team of students and leaders and eventually even our kids and head off to serve in other incredible countries.  Brazil, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica would become a part of our hearts as we gained a love and appreciation for the people and churches of those beautiful countries.

And then in past few years, we’d be blessed to take trips on our own to see all sorts of incredible countries.  Traveling together with you has been another of my favorite parts about us.

Thirteen years.  Thirteen amazing and wonderful years.  Sure, we’ve had our highs and lows but through it all, God has richly blessed our marriage and allowed us to grow stronger together.  I could not be more thankful to be married to you.  I thank and praise God for these past thirteen years and I pray that He will allow us many, many more.

So happy anniversary, Jeremy Herr.  It was hard to even try to put into words all that this past thirteen years has meant to me.  You are the love of my life, and I could not be more happy.  We are not perfect, but we were perfectly meant to be together and this is something that I am so thankful for.  I love you and can’t wait to see the great things that God continues to have in store for us.