On May 15th, Jennifer and I celebrated our 10th year of marriage. It seems like just yesterday that we were tying the knot and embarking on our marital journey.

As we were waiting for our dinner to arrive on our anniversary night out, I asked this question: “What has been your most memorable moment of marriage in the last 10 years?”

We both thought about it for a moment. There have been so many ups and downs, so many good times and also hard times. How can you choose just one?

You would think that the most memorable moments would be times of ecstasy and joy; times of fun and laughter. Perhaps our honeymoon to Disney World, or our vacation to the East Coast that we took after our summer missions project in Myrtle Beach.

I thought for sure Jen might mention New York City and our visit to a Broadway play or our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If not New York City, then for sure her most memorable moment would be one of our anniversary trips to a Bed & Breakfast.

After a moment of silence, I asked, “what was the first thing that popped into your mind when I asked that question?”

“This may sound kind of weird”, she said, “but my first thought when you asked that question was the time two years ago when we got a call from the birthmother with whom we’d been matched and she told us that she had decided to keep the baby.”

Jen then asked me what my first thought was in response to the question.

I said, “this might sound weird also, but the first thing that popped into my mind was when our moving truck broke down in the middle of the California desert on our way to Arizona.”

It’s interesting that the first things we thought of were times of struggle, stress and hardship.

The one thing that is common about the things we remembered is that they were circumstances that occurred that were not what we had planned.

When our truck broke down in the middle of the desert, in the middle of a single lane road, it was a potentially scary and lonely situation. But the fear and loneliness was somehow tempered by the fact that we were enduring it together.

When the birthmother told us she was backing out of the adoption process, there was extreme sorrow and hurt. Yet the sorrow and hurt was somehow tempered by the fact that we were enduring it together.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says it this way:

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

More than anything, I believe that marriage is a commitment between two people to be there for each other no matter what.

Jennifer and I have experienced this adventure for ten years now, and we’re praying for many more adventurous years together.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers for us and our marriage. We have experienced first-hand the benefits of prayer in helping us to build and maintain a strong marriage relationship!