On April 7, 2009, John and I celebrated our 19th anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas. We’d wanted to go to Nassau on our honeymoon, but back then, we were just kids. John was a 23-year-old furniture delivery guy, and I was an 18-year-old single mom. …We still had dreams, and as the years passed, we kept those dreams alive.
From year 1–18, we would go out to dinner on our anniversary, and usually Nassau came up somewhere in the conversation. Beaches, sun, snorkeling, relaxation. Ahhh … we’d always end with the same word: someday.
As year 19 loomed, I got a hair-brained idea. “Why wait until year 20?” I asked John. We had three teens and for the first time a little money in our savings. “Nineteen is a huge celebration, too. Our kids are old enough that we can leave them and know the house won’t burn down. We have friends who can check in to make sure they’re eating and not killing each other.” John loved the idea, and so we sailed away.
To be honest, our anniversary vacation was everything we dreamed of and more. We talked, we laughed, we ate, we sunned, we snorkeled, we kayaked, and we told ourselves we didn’t want to wait for another nineteen years to pass until we did it again.
April 7, 2010, we celebrated our 20th anniversary in a new city 2,000 miles from our former home with a new baby on tow. The baby was our adopted daughter — a dream we saw fulfilled after much longing and prayer. The move was another answer to prayer. We’d felt in our hearts we wanted to serve in ministry, and God fulfilled that desire by sending us to FamilyLife in Little Rock, Arkansas. Neither were on the radar when we kayaked near Gold Beach the year prior. And while life changes are hard, both were a result of where our marriage has led us over the years.
As we celebrated our 20th anniversary, we also shared memories of 19.
“It’s it amazing we did it then. It was perfect timing, really,” I told John.
He agreed. “It was like God’s special gift at just the right time.”
So what about you? Do you have a dream you and your husband have been talking about forever? Do it!
Take the leap now. Whether it’s year 3, 7, 13, 24 or 40 … love, marriage, and life together are worth celebrating. Don’t feel you have to wait for big “notable numbers” to plan something special with your spouse. Like us, you never know what the next year will bring, and we can attest it doesn’t take a silver, gold, or platinum number to have the perfect holiday together!http://pinterest.com/pin/214343263484656813/
Hubby and I always dreamed of going to Positano, on the Amalfi coast of Italy. Even before we were married it was a dream of ours! Well, our tenth wedding anniversary found us newly moved to Europe. We had someah-mazing friends who agreed to watch our two girls for us for TEN DAYS while we went to Positano, Amalfi, and Tuscany. While we were planning it, we found out we were expecting super surprise baby #3, so our anniversary trip ended up being a babymoon, too! I’m SO glad we went when we did…not sure we could et someone to watch THREE kids for that long! Ha!!
What a sweet, sweet story! While we have been away on cruises, they have always been with my entire family-between 30-40 of us!
We don’t get the special 1 on 1 time, but the trips have always been boatloads of fun.