131,487 Hours

This past week,  Hunky Hubby (my affectionate name for him) and I celebrated 15 years of marriage!  Wow!  I must admit I am proud of this feat!  15 years is a long time.  

180 months 

783 weeks

5478 days

131, 487 hours

Whew!  I am exhausted just thinking about!  

And what exactly did we do over those 15 years!

15 years of finding Hunky Hubby's clothes tossed at the end of the bed even though the hamper is just 2 steps away.

15 years of football/basketball/golf games and endless discussions of the next week's game strategy.

15 years of hearing that this is the year for a Washington Redskin's comeback!

15 years of watching and re-watching his favorite movies Rudy and Red Dawn (the original NOT the remake).

15 years of listening to stories of Dublin Lane and the Dublin Lane gang.

15 years of Hunky Hubby helping reach those high places in the pantry.

15 years of leading the way through crowds so I am not trampled (Being short really is a hazard!)

15 years of knowing we were made for each other despite our flaws and weaknesses.

But most of all 15 years of placing God first in our lives.


 15 years of placing ourselves second.  To hang up our own selfishness and think of each other first.  We chose to not follow our own desires and follow God's commands.  To tune out the world with all its bells and whistles and turn to each other.  


Well....maybe not every single one of the 131, 487 hours but at least enough that we survived the desert places in our life.  You know those places when you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Times when although you know God is there you feel like He is not listening or acting on your behalf.  Or maybe you don't feel His presence at all.  Times when you question "Is this really the way life should be?"

We have had a few over the last 15 years.  When we struggled with infertility for years.  A pain that still hasn't gone away completely.  When we opened our arms to children in foster care to be yelled at, hit, & spit on despite all the love we showed them.  The pain of a child feeling worthless and unloved and seeing them attempt or consider to end their life repeatedly.  The heartbreak of disciplining a child to only see them continue to run and eventually leave.  The despair over losing a child and letting go of them. That moment when we finally realized that no matter how much love we give a child sometimes it is just NOT enough erase all their pain.

And in those desert places... those dark moments we can only look to God's word to give us the encouragement needed to keep pressing forward.  Just a few of my favorite verses that have helped me along the way.  

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.  Psalm 147:5

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heaves are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thought than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6

I know each one of those painful experiences.  Times when I thought "WHY???" that God was shaping and molding me.  Teaching and lovingly correcting me.  Each situation looking back showed me a better way.  More patience.  More faith.  More love.  And just goes to show how I am Growing Up on Dublin Lane.