This picture sits on my vanity . . . today I paused to reflect . . . it was nine years ago . . . we were celebrating our first official night as empty nesters. Brave hearted by then and ohhhhh so grateful.

We could have been a 1980's Open Door poster family . . . our story was . . . uhhh . . . complicated. From the beginning . . . we knew . . . to live our lives redemptively would require courage and God's amazing grace.

Now (then) . . . here we were . . . crossing a threshold . . . one we had dreamt of for fourteen years. There were dreams of ministry together . . . travel . . . and room for God to show up as He liked.

Little did we know then that He was likely to show up with four son-in-laws, two daughter-in-laws, and twenty-seven grandchildren. Today we look more like the old man and woman in a shoe than empty nesters. The dreams of our ministry together becoming a living story over years . . . one redeemed by God . . . the way it began . . . one day at a time.

The plot thickens!

For a story worth living . . . Deo Gratias!