Eighteen years...it's been a good run

This is my favorite picture taken of us here. That is one handsome feller God gave me.

So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of bountiful in fruits of the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11 (The Message)

When I met Marc, I was engaged to marry someone else. Yep. I'm not even kidding. I didn't like Marc at all, and he didn't think much of me, either. God is such a hoot. Fast forward a year-and-a-half, to my senior year of college. I was directing a show, and Marc was in charge of lights and sound. I borrowed his pen after rehearsal one night, and the rest, as they say, is history. That was twenty years ago, and we've never been apart since.

People were shocked that Marc and I were even remotely interested in one another, much less crazy in love almost immediately. Those kinds of things are hard to explain, aren't they? But I knew immediately that I would marry him. It wasn't that he was so good-looking (he was handsome, but I think much better-looking now) or so brilliant (though he was and is the smartest person I've ever known), but that his heart for God was so big. Now, if you knew Marc then, you're surprised by that. But the very first real conversation we had was about God, and I fell in love almost instantly with everything he had to say. And while we haven't always been the people God created us to be, I can say that never, in twenty years together, have I doubted that Marc loved God with a passion. He is the most sincere Christ-follower I have ever known. I'm so glad to be his wife.

Since we have been here, I have often been an absolute nut case. Completely overwhelmed by the language, the culture, my own family...I have so often been of little help to anyone around me. But Marc has been a rock. He loved this city from the moment he set eyes on it. His love for this place has not wavered...and it is not a really lovable place. But Marc's strength as a missionary is this: he is able to see this mega-city and her inhabitants with God's eyes and not his own. Where I can be critical and negative, always seeing the possibility of doom and gloom, Marc is convinced that God is always out in front of us, directing our steps, making our path straight. He delights in God's word in a way that no one else I know does. (I found him giggling over Ezekiel the other day...no small feat, my friends.) And slowly but surely, as we settle into this place and this life, as we look forward to our one-year anniversary on the field (can you imagine???), Marc is convincing us all that it is possible not to just survive here, but to flourish. We are starting to see the city as Marc sees it. What better gift could we, as a family, receive than to see the world around us as Marc does?

Today is our 18th anniversary. (Marc said we'd had a good run to somebody the other day, and the entire room collapsed in laughter. Hence the title.) I cannot imagine a life that does not include Marc. He is my very best friend. He loves me when I am completely and totally unlovable. He sees the best in people when I have a tendency to see the worst. He loves his children passionately. He loves his work passionately. He loves his God passionately. And thank God, he loves me passionately. I am blessed beyond measure by his presence in my life. I will never be able to say it enough: except for my salvation, he is God's greatest gift to me. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are blessed with somebody special in your life, and that you have a trip to IKEA planned for today, too. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye