Robyn and I began Season 1 of our life together on June 8, 1985 in Hammond, Louisiana.
Because I was right out of college, we soon moved in with my parents while raising the funds needed to fund our ministry to college students back at Cornell where we’d met. I’m grateful my parents allowed us to stay with them, but it’s just not an ideal way to start off your married life together. The added wrinkle was discovering in December that Robyn was pregnant.
I remember thinking, “Oh Lord, surely we won’t be living here when the baby is born.”
Season 2 began the day we moved back to Ithaca, New York just before our first wedding anniversary. Our fund raising was complete! (Well, as complete as it can ever be when you’re in ministry.) We were on our own! For all of three months. During the last trimester of Robyn’s pregnancy. I have wonderful memories of that season. It was just a short one!
Season 3 began in the early morning of September 4, 1986, the day Rachel was born.
A couple years later, we moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where three more kids were born.
Erica…
Amy…
Rob…
And seven years ago, we made the move to Fayetteville, the home of the Arkansas Razorbacks. By that time, Rachel was already married to Richard. He serves in the Marine Corps.
And a few years after the move to Fayetteville, we had another wedding. Erica married Ross, who serves in the Army.
As season 3 began to wind down this year, we sent Rob off to the Navy.
We welcomed our first grandchild, Wes.
And grandchild #2, Tyler.
That brings us to today, the official end of season 3 (29 years and 25 days), when we put Amy on a plane to move to Germany where she’ll be doing ministry on an Army base in southwest Germany for the next few years.
And now, Robyn and I are “empty nest.” It’s a sad, joyful, hopeful, exciting, ready-for-whatever-God-has-next-for-us kind of day. It’s the start of Season 4!
Whichever season you find yourself in, live into it fully! Soak up every moment. Work or ministry, hobbies and nice things have their place, but as I reflect back on the first three seasons of life with Robyn…I don’t care about any of that. What I’ve accomplished at work or how many square feet our house is or how much money we have in the bank (not much!) aren’t what matter to me.
How about you?