Clear Blue & 22....

Today Dwayne & I celebrate 22 years of marriage!
The rain has moved out and it is a beautiful day here in the Great State of Washington!
I woke up early even though it is Saturday and the first thing on my mind was
that today is our anniversary.

These are just a few pictures of our year.. man we packed in alot this year ...
Christmas skiing with the kids
Jan. enjoying the snow and scenery
Feb hiking and exploring /wedding planning
March working in the yard, Military Balls
April travel and more playing
May married our daughter and got to see family, Josh's Graduation
June summer fun, Yellowstone, Montana & Josh joining us
July hot and yet not, another move
August chilling and just hanging out
September Salmon fishing, farewell's , New Job
And here we are October!

This next year will be really strange because it will be spent apart.
However we do have Rome to look forward and I promise you this,
We will pack in more memories in that 2 weeks and take so many pictures....

Babe, Thank you for 22 years of Loving, Laughing and Living!

I love you~

Happy 21st Anniversary to US!

It has been 21 years as of today~


We feel so blessed!


Love you ~ My Beloved and I look forward to another 21+ more years.....


Here's to another year of Adventures.


Yours Always,
Melissa

Anniversary Gifts

This was our 20th anniversary that we celebrated this year on October 24th. We had a great dinner and Dwayne surprised me with a ring. I wasn't expecting anything and we usually don't exchange gifts but treat eachother to a surprise dinner and usually a night out in a hotel.....

But this year... since it was our 20th we had planned to go to Paris. With the change of plans to come back to the states early we had to put off our plans for Paris. Dwayne surprised me and put some of the money we had saved to that trip to these rings...

I don't have a picture of dwayne's yet but I'll post one soon! ;)

here's mine though!

Thanks Honey! It's beautiful and I love that you made all the more special by sharing why you wanted to give it to me! It's been no small thing to put up with me and yet we have learned so much about life and love because of this life we have shared with one another!


Much love !

My Beloved is Mine and I am His......

20 years ago.......

It was 20 years ago today that Dwayne and I were married. We started the journey towards becoming ONE. I am not sure at that time ,20 years ago, that I fully grasped the idea of becoming one but now 20 years later I have a bit more insight as to what that really means.

We didn't start out like most who have a long dating history or who have grown up in familiar surroundings. No we came from different parts of the world the North and South. Now there have been a few battles in our marriage and I would have to say that some of them were a result of our differences :) namely him being from the north :). Hee hee.... no not really. While we did come from different parts of the states we had somethings incommon. Some of those were our desire to love and cherish eachother and to serve the Lord. We had a common vision of what Marriage would look like for us and while we realized some of those things were unrealistic we grew to a better understanding of what would work for us.

We have had our bumps and vallies along the way and I'm sure at times we have thought "what the heck have I done" both thinking that about the other. :) But because of our covenant with God to remain married until Death due us part we have lasted these 20 years. We've struggled through the births of our kids seperated, spent a year without one another while Dwayne served his country, walked through multiple surgeries by one anothers sides, come close to losing our second born son, having to spend countless hours talking on the phone sperated for the sake of ministry, survived floods and fires, threat of wars and the list could go on.

Here we are today- 20 Years Later! What a journey!

The mountain tops have been AMAZING! We have been so blessed as a couple and have 3 wonderful kids. Our life wouldn't be complete without them and what they have brought to our marriage, is nothing short of the greatest Gifts God could have given us. We have traveled the world next to eachother. Seen miracles, signs and wonders that few have seen but many would hope to see. We have shared in the blessing of seeing unreached peoples become reached, walked many a beach, seen beautiful sun rises and sun sets, hiked mountains, seen wild life that some wait days if not weeks and years to see, ( the white wolf in Yellow stone), with every Crisis and every Joy we have learned something new about the other.

Dwayne, My Beloved~ I love you and thank the Lord for you. I am so richly blessed to have a husband who desires to seek the Lord, who loves his children and zealously guards and watches over them, who makes me laugh just at the sound of a giggle from you, who shares words of wisdom which cause me to stop and think or causes me to struggle to understand how that will impact us, who is my fluffy teddy bear whom I absolutely love to snuggle with and enjoy so much the warmth of your touch, who leads his family in the things of the Lord, who is faithful and trustworthy.... Gosh I could go on and on...

I just want to say I hope the past 20 years have been as much of a blessing to you as they have been to me!

I love you and Look forward to the next 20~

Yours Always,

Melissa