Thirty-six years with this man is completed. Married in 1981 at 8:00 am with a breakfast reception at a small Church in Ogden, Utah we became husband and wife.
"And the two shall become one flesh" is a scripture that has taken much longer than we thought to be accomplished...our dreams of 'us' did not include much of what we experienced in this journey.
I am a firm believer that it is in the contrasts of life that we find reality and truth and the deepest parts of love. To say yes we must understand no. To learn we must embrace our own lack of knowledge. To appreciate beauty we must understand and embrace the 'unlovely' by the world's standards. To truly belong, we must know what it feels like to be the 'outcast'. To joyfully walk in the light we must have an understanding of what it is like to feel of darkness. I love the movie, "The Chosen" because it is these struggles of life where we choose life, choose love, choose light, choose relationship, that we find out what it is to be a "Righteous Man".
This lovely man and I have walked through these contrasts of life, and we have not fully attained the righteous man status, but we have loved through, conquered much, and grown lots through these experiences. Today, I love Bob more than I could have ever imagined. We are on an amazing adventure. We laugh daily, we love without barriers and intervention, we are blessed with the most amazing family. We have stories to tell wherever we go.
This year we got to spend our anniversary at a friends farm in New Jersey. We had a lovely dinner alone at Eccola. Great food romantic place. We then celebrated with Rick at his dinner table with great ice cream and raspberries from his farm. Just talking and telling family stories and hearing his son's adventures was a priceless treat!This whole trip and year has been such a blessing. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Hold on, more to tell and more to come as we travel this great country. We have found miracles at every turn.
We have some trials going on right now in our family that are serious and require love and walking through the fire, but my confidence is in what God has grown in this family and what the future holds will be for our growth and not destruction.
Young or older, dark hair, light hair, no hair, sun vacations, work and cold, we are a family. Thank you, Jesus, for your ever-present hand. My prayer is that the boys always maintain the love and care they have for each other and that above all they choose the relationships they have and stay in touch and together. I am so proud of each of them. Our daughters in law are all amazing, our grandkids complete joys. We play, we love, we live as Hekkers! |
| The year 1999 I think, the whole crew. |
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| Johnny's big day together |
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| Grandpa practicing songs for the grandkids |
Fishing with the boys
Hanging out watching football
Birthday Celebrations
BBQs
Babysitting
Road Trips
Fire Pits
36 years and counting....
Anyone who gets to bask in the Hekker shine can count themselves as lucky, and I got to count myself as one of the fortunate ones. To have 36 years and still act together as though every simple pleasure, like a sunset, or ice cream with wineberries, is a celebration of life? Not too shabby. And i like Bob's tradition of giving (instead of getting) an anniversary present to his friend (in this case, a Ghost of Paul Revere CD).
ReplyDeleteHonored to have been around them for their 1st 36th anniversary celebration, and even around them when they heard of the birth of Elena. Rock on, Hekkers!