My father in law had an old joke
"I've been happily married for 30 years" he would say "Out of 40, that's not bad" He was quite the card....
We have been married for 21 years this month.
We went back, on the evening of our anniversary, to our very first home. It is currently for sale and sits empty (and lonely) so we took advantage and spent a little time exploring our old stomping grounds.
It's amazing how many memories a place can hold. We had our very first date on the hillside above the barn- a picnic where I brought snickerdoodles and invited everyone we knew- while Dan was prepared with wine and cheese, and spent an entire afternoon un-inviting everyone we knew...
It's the place we came home to for the very first time after our honeymoon. The old clothesline brought back memories, as did the birdhouse perched on a pole outside our dining room window. The barn is empty now, but I remember the work my new husband put in to put up fence and make a stall for my horse. Pulling in the driveway, I was almost sure she would be putting her head over the gate to greet us.
It's the place we brought our first born son to. A small outbuilding reminds me of the hours of scraping and painting we put in to create a playhouse.
We peeked in the windows and sat on the porch.
So many hopes and dreams, all wrapped up in one 16 acre piece of land. We didn't live there long- less than 2 years, and we moved on....
Still, it is good to spend a little time remembering the old hopes, and the old dreams. I look at my 2 nearly grown sons, and I realize that most of those dreams have become a reality. I am a wife and mom and I am richly blessed.
It seems like a good time to look ahead.... to create new hopes and new dreams for the future. To be grateful for what has been and look forward to what will come. To think of grandchildren. Travel. Ways to serve. To remember the passions of our youth and to rekindle some of them.
I think that there is alot to dream about. What about you?
