9 years

So, Tim and I celebrated our 9th anniversary last week. We sat at the table over a plate of Chicken Fettucini Alfredo, (I brought it back...it used to be one of Tim's favorite dishes...I made it so much that we both got sick of it!), and reminisced about the events of these 9 glorious (what else am I supposed to say?!) years. We started out at 22 and 20 in a tiny little seminary apartment with next to nothing. I remember feeling like I was living in a little dream world. Most people would wonder how that life could make anyone happy, but we were. It was a carefree time....just school and the little jobs we held to stay afloat back then. There were no real responsibilities or pressures....just the bliss that those first few months of marriage bring. Of course, along with the bliss came the tumultuous arguments that only those first few months can also bring. (Tim and I have always been the couple who gets along beautifully with a good balance of disagreements.)

And I digress...I am writing about what these first 9 years have brought us. We moved a lot in our first year. Tim held his first pastorate position in our first year. We moved out to that small East Texas town and learned a lot to say the least. After Tim's first pastorate ended, we moved back to seminary housing, then quickly moved to a small town in Arkansas where Tim stepped into youth ministry for the second time. Through all of these moves, Tim continued seminary until he finished....a lot of commuting. It was nothing for us to go several days without seeing each other....I guess we just knew that finishing school was important and we were both determined to see it through.

The beginning of our third year promised a new era in our history. We found out we were pregnant and were both graduating with our bachelor degrees. That summer we moved to Austin where Jordan was born a few months later. We were only there for a few months before moving back to Arkansas to the same church where Tim would now Pastor. This move would prove life-changing for us.

This is when we met our dear friends, Kyle and Erika Sears. After only a year of friendship and serving on staff side-by-side, the 4 of us knew what we were destined to do together. The burning passion inside these men, shared by their wives, could not be contained in a traditional church setting. God had given us a "dream"--and had created us to follow where that path lead. So, we blindly followed and made our last big move to Frisco, Texas in the summer of 2002.

After being here only a month, we found out we were pregnant with our second son, Titus. During my pregnancy Tim and I worked loooooooong hours. We were weary with fatigue, disappointed that the move had not been as easy as we had hoped, but still determined to follow God's leading. Maybe He was testing us to see how bad we wanted it. We knew there was no going back. We were consumed with "the dream"-the idea that a church could be created where people were real, flexible, and passionate and we could experience that on Sunday in corporate worship and individually throughout our days and weeks. We bought a house and moved in a couple of months before Titus was born.

We began having preview (practice) services for GM that summer along with Home Bible Studies. A year later we held our first public service; 9 months later we officially launched. Here we are now, still chasing "the dream"...enjoying the fruits already and learning all along the way as we go. There is nothing on this earth I would rather be doing. I love where we are. I love what we are doing. I love how much I have learned and how far I have come as a child of God. I love that I am still learning and experiencing new things in Christ.

To the next 9 years, I say, "LET'S GO!!"

I wonder what Genesis Metro will look like by then. I can only pray that God will bless us in ways that I cannot even imagine. And by that I mean that GM will be used to transform people's lives beyond what I can comprehend.

I wonder whay my kids will look like by then. They will be 14 and 12.....that seems CRAZY to me!!!!!

Funny, I don't really wonder what Tim and I will look like. I am pretty sure it will be much like we look today. A little older and wiser perhaps; still happy, content, trying to make our marriage better--still disagreeing on the little things where our personalities differ. I am so glad (WARNING: cliche moment coming) we were paired for this journey together. I cannot imagine my life any other way.