It's My Anniversary!

It's My Anniversary!

Hubby and I have been married for

21 years today!!!

Where has the time gone? It seems like forever ago that Brent asked me to marry him. Who would have ever thought that a little 18 year old country boy and a little 16 year old girl would make it? I really don't think anyone thought we would. All I can say is it was God and that is the only way I can explain. A marriage takes three (God + Man + Woman =All three) without that you are destined to failure. Since this is my anniversary, I decided to share a little about Brent and myself. I know I've already shared how we met,but let me tell you about our life together that started on 05-27-1989.

Our Life Together

Brent and I married on May 27th or 1989 at Brent's church "Beulahland Baptist Church. We both were active in church. He was going to Beulah and I was a member of Mt Olivet. I decided it was the right thing to do to leave my church and join with his and so I did. Church has been a very important part of our relationship. As I've said so many times before, I think of church like a shelter from the storms and the members like family. I think the best way to start your own life and  family is in church. If you are standing all alone when a storm comes,it's easy to get pulled apart ,but if you are standing together with a church family that supports you and is praying for you,then you are much less likely to be pulled apart. So my advice to all is to find you a church and start going.

When we started out. We didn't start at the top. We started out at the bottom...the very bottom. I think starting at the bottom and working up is the best way to do it. I think to many of the young couples try to start at the very top and end up failing ,because they get in over their heads with houses and cars that they really can't afford. They end up with nothing left to have a life ,because bills suck up everything they have. Then money become a problem and before long the stress is not worth it anymore,so they give up on the marriage and life they planned.

  As I said, we started at the very bottom. We rented a little single wide trailer that set in the middle of a cow pasture and we paid $100 a month for rent and we rented it for about 1 year. I didn't like it.It wasn't my dream house. I didn't enjoy being there,but I kept in mind that it was only temporary and that at the time it was all we could afford. I made the best of it and kept it clean and saved for our own place. At that time, Brent worked at a lawn mower shop and barely made $100 a week. I babysat for my mom(my lil brother Bryan) and for her neighbor and I barely made $100 a week, but we used our money wisely and we made it. We NEVER asked our parents for anything. We never borrowed or took from anyone and believe it or not we even saved money...really. We didn't even except government assistance. We chose to pay and make our own way. 

A little later that year, Brent started working with GA power. We managed to save enough for a down payment and we bought our own house. It was nice not renting. I was thankful to have my own house. It was a 3 bedroom brick house in Roswell that needed to be moved, so we got it at a pretty good deal. However, we faced our first loss,because someone decided to steal all the bricks,off of it before we got it moved...really So we ended up putting siding on instead. Then we had a man do our foundation and he decided(because we were young) that he would take advantage of us and he made our foundation ,but he done it wrong, so our house when it was set on the foundation never fit it right,so we spent the first 8 years working/fixing our home. Our blessing turned out to be a big job. But, we learned alot of good lessons along the way. The main one was ."If you want something done right, do it yourself",and pretty much that has been the way of life for us.

Then our family grew by 12 feet!!!!

God blessed our home in December of 1989 with our precious daughter "Anna Brooke".

Another daughter was sent from Heaven in Feb 1992 "Katie Danyelle"

And in 1993 we were surprised with twins!

"Jonanthan Brent" & "Lea Ashley"

I would say we pretty much had our hands full. I had 4 children age 3 and under and I LOVED IT! I really didn't mind having three in diapers. I was just sooooo thankful that God allowed me to have children.

I stayed home and kept my own kids,because that is what my Hubby wanted. He didn't want our children raised by other people. I enjoyed being home and I enjoyed every second with my children. However, I continued to babysit my little brother and a neighbor's child to help with income.

Brent got a new job in 1992 working for Caraustar Industries and he has been there ever since.

I would say our first 10 years were spent raising babies,working on a house, and building a life. 

That 10th year we bought my Father-In-Laws house,which was my hubby's childhood home. His dad had decided to sell the home place and my hubby wanted it. So we bought it and we are still here.

In 2001, our family grew by two more feet. God blessed us with a son "Jacob Noah". I prayed for this child and even asked God for a son and He blessed us with one.

And in 2005 ,God blessed us with our oldest daughter "Samantha"

she came to us through the foster care system at age 15.

That's how we became a family of eight:)

The best advice I can give on raising children is the same as with marriage.

Take them to church. Raise them up in church. Don't fail to carry them to the house of God. A child raised up in church is more likely to give their life to Him ,then a child who wasn't and getting involved in church doesn't come as natural for an adult, if they've never been in church.

We are a family leaning on God.

We have been blessed and God has done some amazing things in our lives. Although our lives haven't been perfect and we are not perfect people, we are trying to live for God. We are not the finished product just yet ,because God is still working on each of us, to make us what he wants us to be.

From the outside,we appear to have it all together and to be the perfect family, but we are not perfect. I don't want people to think that of us,because we are just like everyone else,doing our best to make it in this world. We've had our share of heart aches and pain,but they have helped us to grow as a family. God has brought us to where we are, for whatever reason. We don't know all the plans God has for us,but we know where He has brought us from and we trust that He will carry us the rest of the way.