32 years ago, I was the new girl in town. I'd just moved to Indiana from Pennsylvania midway through my sophomore year of high school. I went from a high school in a small rural community with about 800 students to a high school with 1600 students in a building that looked like a prison. Thankfully I signed up for an Art class that semester, and my Art teacher kind-of took me under her wing to help me out my first semester. I had Art class 6th period and then study hall for 7th period, so she often gave me a pass to come back to work on my projects during my study hall. It was then that I met two freshman guys and became good friends with both of them. One of them was named Mike. Their fun, light-hearted friendship was so good for me that year.
Fast forward into the following semester in the beginning of my junior year. I joined the cross-country team with a new friend from my church, and she got me to join her in a Bible quizzing team at another local church. I met a guy on my cross-country team who was also on that Bible quiz team, and we started dating. I attended many of his youth group events in addition to my own church's youth group events, I ate lunch with him and all of his church friends, and soon that group of kids became my close friend group for the rest of high school, even though he and I didn't date all that long. Remember Mike from the Art class? He was part of that close friend group.
I didn't take the break-up very well, so I was pretty down in the dumps as my first year in Indiana came to a close. I got a sweet card in the mail over Christmas from my friend, Mike, who took note of my sadness and wanted to cheer me up. He even asked if I would like to go out sometime in the card, but he didn't follow up on his question after the break.
A few months later, I started to try to work on reestablishing friendship with the guy I'd dated, and we went out for pizza to just have some lighthearted conversation. It was only a few weeks till spring break (maybe not even that long), and he told me about his plans to go on a mission trip with his youth group to JAARS, an aviation base for Wycliffe Bible translators. It wasn't going to cost much money at all to go, so I asked if it was too late to sign up. Within a few days, I signed up to go! Little did I know that he ended up backing out. God's way of giving me a chance to get to know a certain guy named Mike a little better.
By the end of that mission trip, I grew closer to a lot of people in that youth group, including Mike. I wouldn't say that an actual relationship started on that trip 31 years ago, but our hearts were definitely drawn to each other in a new way. He went to a concert with me with my youth group shortly after, and then we finally went on an official date that summer. That official date led to many more dates, until five years later we got married on April 10, 1999 right after I graduated from college. This year we are celebrating our 26th anniversary, 31 years after that mission trip to JAARS.
We've had some really high highs over these 31 years together, and some very low lows. We've traveled all over, enjoyed serving together on many different mission trips, including a whole summer in Mexico and a whole month in Colombia. We briefly pursued an adoption in El Salvador, then pursued three adoptions in Colombia, completing only one of them by bringing our son home after a five year battle for him. We've raised a biological son into adulthood and now enjoy his company and extra set of hands in restoring our newest investment, a house built in 1958 sitting on 10 acres of land that hadn't been tended very well. Mike left his family and friends to support me to become a bilingual teacher in Texas, and I left my family and friends to support him to work side-by-side with his brother in business. We've been part of three great churches over the year, one in Warsaw, IN where we became a solid part of Hispanic ministry, one in Texas that we miss dearly, and now Terrace Lake Church in Columbus, IN. Our church family and small groups have guided and supported us through thick and thin. I don't think we'd still be standing strong without that solid support system.
It's been a journey, and here we are in stage 2, the almost empty nest stage, that period of life where you have to rediscover yourself and find your new mission before the kids get married and your grandchildren come along. I guess it's another one of those in-between stages of life. I'm thankful we've both found avenues to pursue our passions and hobbies in this stage, and I look forward to new adventures together in the years ahead.
Here are a "few" pics of us from over the years. The two of us, three of us, and four of us. Of the journey of US.
