Life Happened

Saturday we were back again for the second night of the ten year reunion.  James and I spent the majority of the weekend with our good friends, Justin and Joanna.  We partied like rockstars on Friday but we were feeling our age by Saturday night.  The dinner was delicious and the company was good.  Afterward, the four of us, Justin, Joanna, James and myself, headed out to the after party.  As we sat on our bar stools, yawning over and over, Joanna and I kept asking "what has happened to us?" The young women in this place looked like children and seemed to be a lifetime younger than us.  The four of us have spent many nights sitting by fires visiting or fishing all night long but then it came to me...
What has happened to us???  In the past two years, among the four of us we have:

• Lost Justin's dad
• Lost 4 grandparents
• Had 4 family members battle cancer
• Joanna and James have both been diagnosed with different but equally life changing incurable diseases.
• 2 unsuccessful surgeries
• Justin and I have had to cope with the fact that we can't "fix" our spouses.  We can only support and love them through the pain.
• Both couples are faced with the possibility of infertility

So as I was thinking, the answer came to me.  Life happened.  We are not the same people we were just two years ago.  Life happened.  And while all that we have been through when you type it out really is a lot of hurt and misery, we are all better because of it.  These trials, obstacles, and tough times have taught us to look to God for strength, cling tight to the precious bonds of marriage and cherish our friendships! 
It is my hope that the four of us attend James and Justin's twenty year reunion together.  I pray in the next ten years, James and Joanna's conditions will be behind us.  I pray when we go out for the next reunion, we have to pay a babysitter.  I pray we can look back on this time and smile.  As for now, I thank God we are not who we once were and we can lean on Him through the trying times!