Friday, August 22, 2008

Celebrating Mr. & Mrs. Shaffer

Mommy & Daddy
Mom & Dad
Mother! & Oh Daaad
Grammy & G-Boy

My parents have been married 43 years as of today. They were one of the most uncool sets of parents when I was 13, because almost everybody else had cool divorced parents, which meant they had two rooms in two different houses and got to celebrate birthdays and holidays at least twice each. Not us, though...

Nope, our parents stuck together through job changes, moving across the country and back, ministering to a critically ill child, continuing construction to expand their house to accommodate their growing offspring, even through family vacations involving driving to Wisconsin or California or the Black Hills and back again.

It's their fault it took me such a long time to get married myself. They set an immeasurably high standard for what a marriage partnership should be. (Ironically, they got married in movie fashion - just a few months after they met - and not long after Mom had called off her original engagement to a different man.)

We had a huge party to celebrate their 40th anniversary; we rented an entire historic village, invited hundreds of friends and family members to join us for a cookout and vow renewal. We're not throwing such a big shindig this year, but it is no less an amazing milestone, and one my brothers and I (not to mention our families) are all very grateful to be celebrating.

I have yet to reach the first anniversary of my marriage, and will have to live a good long life to even see my 40th. But I believe their example has helped set the stage for my brothers and me to realize the sacrifice and commitment it takes to make a marriage work.

Congratulations Mom & Dad - and thank you for the beautiful wedding you helped make happen in April! We love you!

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