The little things

I am watching Dave sit and read Goodnight Moon to our baby and my heart rejoices. It doesn't take much these days to bring a smile to my face. Its a thousand little things that the Father allows to take place in my life every day that make me love him more and more. Dave and I will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary on Tuesday and I love him more today then I ever knew I could. We were just kids the day we said "I do". I was 18 and he was 19. I know everyone thought we were crazy, but I knew that this is what was right for us. We grew up together(literally). As I look back over the years its the little things that stand out in my mind. We didn't have a fancy wedding. He didn't buy me a big diamond ring. We didn't have but a couple of days before classes were to start so a honey moon was out of the question. My dress wasn't spectacular. (It actually came from J.C. Penny of all places). None of that mattered to us. We were young, we were in love, and we had dreams of making a life together. I had no way of knowing just how great that life was going to turn out to be.

As I think back over our wedding anniversaries I am having trouble remembering where we went to dinner, what gifts he gave to me, or the words he wrote inside of my cards. To tell you the truth I don't even care that I can't remember them, but there are hundreds of things that took place on the days between them that I can remember. Things like holding my hand each night as I fall to sleep, rocking our babies when they had trouble falling asleep, playing board games together until our eyes were so tired we could no longer see the pieces, coaching soccer teams, driving to church, wrestling the kids in the living room floor, making scrapbooks for me to show me that he "got it", driving to baseball games to watch our Blake pursue his dream, snuggling our sleepy Allison a few extra minutes each morning, clipping fingernails on tiny hands that I was too scared to clip, praying for our baby each night as she struggled to survive, and hundreds and hundreds more. Its the little things. The everyday things that he has mastered as a husband and a father that make me love him so much.

Tonight I am thankful for the little things that God has done for us. This life, this maraige, this family, this baby pickle that He has given to Dave and I. I am overwhelmed when I sit and think of all that He has and is doing in the life of our family. I know we have had difficult times, and I know that our Ashley still has such a long way to go but I can't deny that He is good. Can you believe that we have been out of the hospital for a week tomorrow? Can you believe that she has completed the first cycle of chemotherapy and tomorrow she will start on her second? Only 15 weeks to go! Can you believe that He has brought her through all of this? I really feel that He is not only doing big things in her life, but I believe that I watch Him do a hundred little things on a daily basis for my youngest daughter. She is surviving. She is getting stronger. She is happy. She is all of this because of all that He is doing. I don't know how many more days we will live here in Omaha apart from our family, but I still see God working in many, many ways so I am just enjoying all the little things.

P.S. Dave, I love you. Thank you for loving our Ashley as much as you do. She adores you, and I am so glad that you take the time to enjoy the little things with her.