Fifteen Thousand

Happy I-can’t-believe-it’s-already-August-Saturday, friends!

13 years ago, my friend John Bell posted on Facebook that he and his wife were celebrating 11,000 days of marriage.

I thought that was kinda cool, so I did the math and discovered that my 10,000 day anniversary with Mrs. Sweetie was just about a month away. I surprised her with a celebration of 10,000 days and I’ve been repeating it every 1,000 days since then.

I try to always surprise her with those celebrations (we were on an Alaskan cruise for 12,000 and I had flowers delivered to our cabin).

Two days ago was 15,000 days and we had a few extra complications so I had to give her a heads up the night before so we could schedule a lunch date in between appointments.

That evening we did something different.

It may not seem “romantic” but it seems pretty appropriate for a celebration of what 15,000 good mornings (which is 41 years plus a little over 3 weeks) means to us.

We had our 4 oldest grands (the 1 year old isn’t quite ready) at our house for a one night cousins camp sleepover at Grandpa & Sweetie’s.

Pizza, games, laughter, sleeping bags on the “funroom” floor (Grandpa slept in the recliner so I’d be able to walk the next day). They all stayed up way past their normal bedtimes watching a movie.

This was the first time we’ve had them all together overnight.

At breakfast yesterday morning, we asked them what they liked best about the experience. “Playing games” was high on everyone’s list.

The 7 year old added “just spending time together” and everyone agreed.

When a couple of kids—just freshly graduated from college—said, “I do” 15,002 days ago, they imagined a future together.

Everything hasn’t gone according to the vision.

But that crazy and clueless love has resulted in two great kids who have found their own lifelong loves, and those “I do-s” have resulted in five of the grandest grands in the history of grand-dom.

And when we look at them, we can’t help thanking God that He didn’t give us everything we thought we wanted or needed.

And maybe that’s a good reminder for the next thing that doesn’t go according to our plans.

Hopefully that encourages you today.

Be amazing today, my friend.

​

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