Golden Plus One

This year my parents celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary. 

I've been wanting to share their story of loving perseverance for a while now.

 This is the perfect opportunity.

My parents married in 1960, were very much in love and ready for whatever life handed them.

They enjoyed a wedding day with beautiful weather and crazy winds.

 Most of their shots have Mom's veil flowing and dress billowing in the breeze.

Their honeymoon in the Poconos included hikes to waterfalls and dinners for two.

I did check with my mom to see if this dress could be hiding in the attic...it has long since been donated.

They arrived home greeted by family and baby booties. 

My mom's sisters both had several children and my dad's brothers and sisters (9 total) 

would eventually have large families with as many as seven children. 

Children of their own were expected and anticipated.

But sadly my parents struggled with infertility, which was devastating, medically difficult and expensive at the time to treat, and quite uncommon in their circle. 

Over and over they welcomed nieces and nephews into the world while they just prayed for one child.

Their faith was what  sustained them.

They continued to pray for a child for  over 20 years. 

They trusted that the situation was in the Lord's hands, not theirs. 

Shockingly, 22  long years later, my parents learned they were expecting. 

The moment my father was told that my mother had given birth to a baby girl 

he swung the nurse around lifting her off her feet with a great big hug.

Possibly more shocking, after 25 years of marriage,  my mom gave birth to my brother.

 Their wedding anniversary usually falls just before Mother's Day. 

It is now such a perfect celebration of family and the blessings in our lives.

Over the past 28 years many couples have spoken with my parents as they travel through marriage waiting for children, constantly hoping to be blessed.

And their advice is always the same: 

pray constantly and focus on each other.

Oh, and buying a Thunderbird doesn't hurt either, apparently.

Most of all, they encourage couples to use this struggle to make marriage stronger. 

I am so grateful for their unceasing prayers, their constant love, 

and their marriage which grows more golden each year. 

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad.  You are so very loved.