You are My Greatest Adventure

I once craved adventure. When I was in high school, and had to write a list of my hobbies or interests, I'd actually write down "adventure". This urge to experience the unknown led me to try all kinds of new things, take risks... and make a few poor decisions here and there. It took me as far away as Uganda, Kenya, Honduras, and Swaziland.

But then, two weeks after I returned home from Swaziland, a certain man got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife, and everything changed. My next adventure would not be g o i n g; rather, it would be s t a y i n g. It would be choosing to find my thrills by loving and investing in this one person. No matter what.

Three years ago today, we got really dressed up and made promises to each other in front of God, our family, and our friends. The adventure began!

When I said my vows that day, I had no idea what I was getting in to - not because I was young and naive, but because that is the nature of these vows. I didn't know what our future together would bring. The promise I made was that, whatever comes, wherever we find ourselves... I will be yours. Having you, loving you, enjoying God with you - this will be my life's adventure.

Today, these vows are no longer abstract. Each word brings to mind a memory, a struggle, a joy. There were the months when we wondered if a job for David in Columbus would ever come, and then the gratefulness when God provided exactly what we needed. The grief and disappointment of another month lost, another hope for a pregnancy dissolved. The freedom in learning to trust that he loves me and will not leave me, even when I feel broken. Laying down our hearts and lives to pursue adoption. Deciding to share our story through this blog, in order to proclaim His gospel and make much of His awesome love.

And so, the adventure continues. We enter our fourth year of marriage, hopeful again that this will be the year we become a family of three. We remember our vows, our failures, and our God of grace who never fails. We give each other grace.

The vow that stands out to me the most today is, "to allow God to use you in my life as He sees best".

Although I don't understand God's ways, I know that He loves us and that His ways are higher and better than our ways. I'm reminded of the passage from Ephesians 3 that inspired the theme of our adoption adventure - "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to he measure of all the fullness of God."

Our marriage is just a part of our greatest adventure - learning to know Him and love Him for who He truly is.

He is our greatest adventure!