A Decade of Married Life

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary.  Wow!  This is a milestone worth celebrating and we did that New York style a couple months ago.  Time is funny; that trip feels like so long ago but 10 years of marriage is a blur.  Today is a regular day with our whole family participating in our church's VBS program and I'll probably do some laundry and household stuff.  Tonight though we will enjoy a date night out.

I have taken some time to look through our wedding photos and because digital photography was just coming out, most of our pictures are just on hard copy.  I thought for record keeping though, I would scan some in and share them to remember the day and our youthful love.

My Dad walking me down the isle - I was so nervous and excited

Matthew's reaction to seeing me

Married!

Love is also funny; I felt I knew and loved this guy enough to commit my life to him, but boy have we grown and changed and fallen in to a more mature and deep love.  It's crazy that you can know a person so well, even all their flaws and shortcomings and still think they are the best person in the whole world; "to be known and still be loved is one of the supreme goals of marriage" R.C. Sproul.  I truly couldn't imagine doing life with anyone else and I am blessed beyond measure to have such a devoted, wise and wonderful man to call my children's father and my husband.  We are thick in the kid stage of life right now; finding time to connect is not always easy and sometimes we are just doing our own thing, coming and going, but still our goals are for a common cause; to raise our family to glorify God and seek His will in all we do.  I feel like I was so naive 10 years ago; I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, I just knew I wanted to be with this guy and never loose him.  But the best part is that God knew exactly what we were in for and saw fit to bring us together.

We were blessed to have 5 grandparents attend our wedding - this is both our parents and Oma Bekkering who has since passed on

We had 2 sweet nieces for flower-girls, Jenna 2 1/2 and Kelsy 1 1/2

My wonderful Mom made my dress and it was perfect

I love our vows and have them framed in our bedroom; today is a good day to reflect on them...

We look so young!

I, Stephanie,

take you, Matthew,

to be my wedded husband;

and I do

promise and covenant

before God,

with His gracious help and

according to His ordinance,

to be your

loving and faithful wife;

for better, for worse,

in plenty and in want,

in joy and in sorrow,

in sickness and in health,

to love, cherish and obey,

as long as God

gives us life on this earth;

I thank God

for making you for me and

for what he has done

in our lives.

I think every milestone in life brings one to a place of reflection and most can say there have been ups and downs along the way.  This is true for us as well and I praise the Lord for His faithfulness to us, for being our foundation and strength in all things. 

I love the story of how we met.  We were both in our second year of University but at separate schools.  Matt was playing basketball for the University of Lethbridge and I was pursuing a Communications degree at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC.  We had a mutual friend that I was living in dorms with that Matt talked to and said, you'll have to hook me up with one of your friends when I come out to play TWU.  Well, she picked me and showed us pictures of each other and told me he was tall.  My interest was piqued and we started chatting on MSN messenger.  A few emails and phone calls later and we were smitten.  We didn't meet in person until that Christmas (2002) and when we did it was so natural.  We did the long distance thing for the remainder of the year until I decided to transfer back to Alberta, initially to a Broadcasting program at SAIT in Calgary, but my heart was in Lethbridge, so for the Spring 2004 semester I enrolled at UofL.  Still, across town was too far to travel at the end of the day, so in January (after booking a hall to make sure a summer wedding was possible), Matthew proposed in his parent's basement with flower petals and candles.  Our wedding day, 6 months later, was a whirlwind but beautiful and special nonetheless.  We both continued our studies and I graduated with a BA in Social Sciences in Fall 2005 and after having 2 babies, Matthew graduated with a BA and BEd in 2008.  He obtained a job teaching Gr 6 at the school he went to his whole life and God has provided for us while I stay home with the kiddos.

What more can I say?  10 years is hard to sum up, but we have 4 kids, a full schedule, a committed love and faith in God to see us through.

With a Barrel and a Heap of Wedded Bliss,

Stephanie