The love of my life.One of my favorite moments while we were in the States happened in our Family Life Group (FLG) at church. It was the first Sunday we visited the group, and one of the ladies said, "Well, I don't know you, but I've followed the love story on facebook." It made me smile, both because it tickled me to think of us as "the love story," and because that really is a great description of our lives together.
Many of you don't know this, but I met Marc when he drove my fiance to the airport in OKC to pick me up from Spring break. I immediately took a dislike to him. To be fair, the feeling was mutual. He thought I was a goody-goody bowhead (a girl with long hair and a perpetual bow in said hair), and I thought he was a bad boy whose parents probably sent him to a Christian college to help him turn his life around. It makes me smile to this day to remember that awkward drive from Oklahoma City to Shawnee, trying to make chitchat and finally giving up, because we clearly just didn't like one another. I was a sophomore in college, and he was a freshman. We would not cross paths again for two years. When we did, I had (obviously) broken off my engagement. I was co-directing a show at school, and he was doing lights and sound. He loaned me a pen to make some notes and stayed behind to retrieve it. We began talking, and as the saying goes, that's all she wrote. I was hooked (pardon the pun) from that conversation onward. I told my roommate when she got up the next morning that I was going to marry him, and I was right. That was in September, 1988, and 23 years later, I only like and love him more.
It has not been a perfect ride. Like every marriage, there have been times of trouble, bumps in the road that we had to survive. Some of those bumps were pretty rough. Some of them were just normal, every day getting-on-each-other's-nerves kind of seasons. If I had to identify the hardest times, definitely one of them would be our first months in Russia, when we were in language school. I can remember saying to him, "I love you, but I don't really like you right now." To his credit, he didn't respond in kind. We survived it, in large part due to his kindness to me, his gracious nature with me. The only time I remember him "putting his foot down" was a time when I freaked out about something and said we were going home to America. He took me into the kitchen (where the kids couldn't hear us) and he said, "Kellye, going home is like divorce. We're not going to do it, and so we're not going to say it. I don't want to hear it again." In many ways, that was a turning point for me. It made me dig my heels in and just determine to stay and to be content.
That's what great relationships do, isn't it? When the proverb says, "iron sharpens iron," it's talking about a relationship in which we make each other better. And that's what my relationship with Marc does--it makes me better. He sees the good in me when I don't. He sees my potential when I don't. When I am too tired and weak to be of much good to anybody, he steps in and holds me up until I can stand on my own. He prays for me. He tells me constantly that I am loved. He makes me laugh until I cry and make weird snorting sounds, and then he thinks that's cute. I ordered bread at the bakery yesterday, all in German, and if he had been here when I got home, he would have high-fived me. He is my cheerleader, my biggest supporter, my very best friend. I love him, certainly, but I also really, really like him. Blessings, blessings, blessings...everywhere I look.
Every once in a while, we get a remark that we should 'get a room,' not be vocal about our relationship, tone it down, etc. Nah. I think I'll take the Tim Tebow approach: any time I am given an opportunity to give Marc a 'shout-out,' I think I'll do it. Because in turn, I'm giving glory to God. Never in a million years would anyone have picked out Marc Hooks and Kellye Hodges for one another. And yet, a loving God had an incredible plan for our lives, one that we could not have imagined. When I look at Marc, at our marriage, our family, this incredible adventure we are on together--I know that only a good and loving God could have written this love story. I would not ever agree to be quiet about my love for God. And I will never stop praising Him for one of His very best gifts to me--Marc. Instead, I'll just let the ultimate Author continue to write our love story.
Well, finally--someone is up at my house besides me! I've already made the maple syrup, so now it's time to make the French toast to go with it. We're looking forward to talking to our home church in Florida this evening--can't wait to tell all about life in Austria! Wherever you are in the world, I pray that the God who loves you so is also writing a great love story in your life, and that you are talking to folks at home today, too. Blessings to you and yours!
His,
Kellye
2 comments:
Kellye, I think Kay told me about your blog and I'm really enjoying it. Steve and I love Austria. Beautiful city! Question - what do you mean you made the syrup? Kim Rennier
I use brown sugar, sugar, water and maple seasoning to make maple syrup. I can sometimes find syrup, but most of the time not. Plus, my kids like my syrup better than anything they can get in a bottle. So I make syrup. :)
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