Sweet 16

Today Cowboy & I are celebrating our Sweet 16! Oh, and the years have been sweet!

Because Cowboy always likes to talk in terms of dates and what happened on them, I did my best to recap only the big events from each year of our married lives.

Don't feel obligated to read...this is truly part of my gift to him.

Year 1--On Spring Break we took our Honeymoon to Colorado--both of us being too young to be the driver of our rental car. I had to read that stupid book, Anpao, for Dr. McKinley's Children's Literature class. (Dr. McKinley was such a godly man and it broke my heart 2 years after I graduated from OSU to learn that he and one of his daughters died in a horrible car wreck).

Year 2--We both graduated from OSU together.

Year 3--We got our first dog together, Bogey. Little did we know that she was going to exceed the pet weight limit at our apartment very quickly!!! We saved for our first house and on August 17th we moved into our 1st home at 1733 Ridgeway Dr.

Year 4--We took a road trip to Tennessee. We enjoyed our time planning a vacation just for us. Also, after 13 long months of trying to have a baby, I was expecting our first child.

Year 5--Miss B was born! Quickly we learned what financial sacrifices we were willing to make so that I could stay home. I quit my teaching job and began my job as Mommy. We kept up with our regular activities with a very easy baby in tow.

Year 6--Cowboy lost his job. Although we were scared out of our minds, God showed us His providence. We survived it and God showed us he had a better plan. I began teaching for PET, later to become Excel.

Year 7--We went to Disney World for the first time. We tried to have a second child and cut our time in half! WOO HOO! It only took 6 months to conceive this time.

Year 8--C-Man was born and we learned what it was like to have a "difficult" baby. He was born via an emergency c-section and immediately afterward I knew I wasn't finished having kids. Besides his c-section birth, he wouldn't take a bottle or pacifier, was colicky, had a sever allergic reaction to an antibiotic, ...

Year 9--We began to seriously consider moving to a bigger house.

Year 10--We moved to Surrey, where both of our parents live, after living with Cowboy's parents for a few months. (They were very sweet to let us invade their home for so long). We officially began our homeschool journey with Miss b being in Kindergarten.

Year 11--Our family became involved with a sweet little homeschool co-op. We had no idea when we began this that it would later become what it is today. (www.keystonecooperative.com)


Year 12--I finally convinced Cowboy we needed a third child. Even though my womb had known this for a while, he was finally on board with this plan. We took the kiddos on a vacation that didn't involve our family. We had a great time in Colorado Springs with them.

Year 13--By this time we desperately wanted another child. We had done the initial fertility tests again (like we did before our first child) and things looked rather bleak for us. So...I made an appointment with a fertility specialist. The night before the appointment, Cowboy gave me the heart-to-heart about how ridiculous this was that we had 2 healthy kids and were potentially looking at fertility treatments. We cancelled the appointment and soon-after began paperwork to become foster/adoptive parents.

Year 14--Little I came home. He was almost 10 months old and weighed 13 pounds. It took little time for us to fall in love with him.

Year 15--We took the 2 big kids on a fabulous 8-night trip to Disney World. We left Little I with Aunt Melody so we could have an overload of big kid fun!!! Little Bit was born and came from the hospital straight to our home.

Year 16--My parents took me and Cowboy and both of my sisters and their husbands on a trip to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate their 40th anniversary. We had the most amazing time!!!