XV

I: We were blessed to finally be married, joined before God, supported by friends and family. We were blessed with Savannah and Sierra, who so drastically changed who we were, what we were about it is hard to remember out couplehood before them.
II: We were blessed with out first home, historic and across from Crane Park in Kalamazoo. It fit the four of us.
III: We were blessed when my contract ended with Pharmacia to have friends to help place me at Data Constructs. A job placement that used skills I hadn't used in a long time and learn so much new. A job I wasn't fit for, but it kept the light on and our children fed.
IV: We were blessed the year that job, too, washed away. It seems now like the struggle from a cocoon. Our families provided a place for you to stay while you worked, trying to help us keep up. We were blessed with the job I finally found at Blue Cross. We were blessed by a church family, which welcomed me back and us, as a couple, for the first time, an experience like we had never had before. They drew us to them and to God, who had been blessing us all along. He blessed us with Pat and Gary, who gave us a home to raise our family for the next three years. Finally, he blessed us with our third child, Shelby.
V: He blessed us with the reconnections we made with old friends and the strong connections we formed with new friends. He blessed us with roots, most of which still thrive today, lifting us.
VI: He blessed us with more responsibilities for his people at the church. We found ourselves responsible for a youth ministry, something I hadn't done since college and a first time for you. In this we grew closer to God.
VII: He blessed us with our last child, Sienna.
VIII: He again showed us the value of the loved ones around us when Pat and Gary needed to sell the home we were in, while we still paid for our house in Kalamazoo. He provided places for us to live, with our parents, while we waited. I'd like to say patiently, but he blessed us in spite of our anxiety.
IX: He blessed us with a promotion at work, refining the skills I would need as a leader, teaching me again to always be ready learn something new. Providing even more for us, while we continued to wait.
X: He blessed us, finally, with the sale of our house in Kalamazoo. We learned so much during that time, but it was like slipping free from an albatross, so we didn't drown. He blessed us, almost immediately, with a new home, our home, that the six of us could move into. The kids wouldn't even need to change schools. Somehow it felt like we made it, God had taken care of us.
XI-XIII: Many blessing fell upon us during these years, but it seems in my mind the dates and times are a blur. The clock has picked up speed. God brought our children from one school to another. He changed our church, merging two church together, bringing us new families and friends. He bless our home and my job. He made us better at so much. He blessed us with soccer and Fife and Drum Corps. These are the years that is seems one kind of crazy was replaced with another.
XV: In this, our fifteenth year, God continues to reign down blessings upon us. Savannah and Sierra completed Middle School, with good grades and ready for High School. Shelby looks forward to the Middle School her older sisters have just left, also with a good head and a strong will. Sienna, who will remain at the same school, but without her sisters is not intimidated by their absence, instead she is set to tell of her "fame" and to run the place. Also, in the last year, I can't but be reminded of how blessed we are to have each other, to have been given this path to walk together. This was another year where I loved you more than the year before.
XVI:?