1992: We are married (by Susan's dh) just five days after my husband's 21st birthday. We move into a family housing shoebox, er apartment, at University of Florida. I enter the OT program and he juggles his senior courses, some graduate school, and an internship.

1993: School, school, and more school. Dh graduates and takes a job with the company he was interning for. We're thankful, as there just aren't too many jobs in his field in the Gainesville area.

1994: I move in with my in-laws for six months to complete my internships. We survive a "weekend" marriage and the loss of my dad. We cap off December with my graduation and a much-delayed honeymoon in Jamaica.

1995: Less than four weeks into a one-year contract with a local therapy practice, I discover that we are expecting! We move out of Family housing and into a rental home in Gainesville. I work for the practice until we welcome our daughter home in October.

1996: I just can't seem to bring myself to go back to work full-time, and take on some PRN contracts with local practices and the nearby rehab hospital...it's just as well, because I'm pregnant again! Dh is still working full time and plugging away at graduate school. We begin working together in parenting ministry.

1997: Our oldest son is born at home. Two days later, my husband defends his thesis and completes his graduate work. In short order, he leaves for North Carolina to begin a new job. We follow him six weeks later. It doesn't take too long to figure out that small town NC is not for us and the end of the year finds us moving yet again...this time to Phoenix.

1998: We meet our best friends, who will in short order become our Phoenix family. We purchase our first home. After a year of apartment living with toddlers, four bedrooms with a pool seems huge to us.

1999: We begin to explore Arizona, even sneaking away for a romantic weekend in the mountains and dabbling in family camping. After one camping trip in October, I'm not feeling too well--and the nausea just won't go away. Hmm....good thing there's lots of room in our house.

2000: Princess Piggy is born in at home. The next morning there is a huge power outage in our neighborhood AND the baby needs to get to the pediatrican's office AND my mom and sister need to be picked up at the airport. We end up at McDondald's for breakfast with our preschoolers and 8 hour old baby. Our anniversary "date" was a quick jaunt for bagels while our six day old snoozed at home with Grandma.

2001: We take our first major trip as a family, all the way to Ohio for my cousin's wedding. We share a van with my sister (who is pregnant with her first child), and stop to visit Steve and Laurie in Indiana. Dave and Steve "bond"...Laurie and I figure out what we knew already: Some people are just kindred spirits!

2002: Wow, has it been ten years already? We tentatively make plans to travel to Spain wiht my sister and her husband, and renew our vows at a castle outside of Madrid. After a whirlwind season of invitation, prayer, and outpouring of support, Spain is set aside, and my dh sees me off on a mission trip to Uganda the day after our anniversary.

2003: We're in the swing of homeschooling two plus a preschooler. We begin "travel" soccer, and for the first and only time ever, our son and daughter are on the same team (ahh...those were the days...).

2004: More family cross country travel...this time to NY to hook up with my sisters (one is now living in Australia) for our father's wedding, down the coast for few days in Williamburg and Jamestown, further down the coast for my cousin's NC wedding, then to see Laurie and Steve again (they've moved). By the end of this trip I'm not feeling too well...and our house is beginning to look much smaller than when we purchased it.

2005: We take our first vacation without extended family...and kind of our last with three children (does it count when you're 37 weeks pregnant?) We welcome baby #4 to the family, and dh chooses to romance my socks off by bringing flowers, a sushi dinner, and an "upgraded" engagement ring to me at the hospital. Juggling four turns out to be rougher than juggling three...especially when #4 is refluxish and high need, so homeschooling gets back-burnered for charter school.

2006: Things are leveling out...but dh isn't so happy with his job, and trouble is brewing at church. We celbrate our anniversary early this year, at a Weekend to Remember, before dh takes off for extended business in Europe. We do our longest family road trip ever...beautiful Lake Tahoe, with our buds Steve and Wendi. In early October the Great Kidney Drama ensues... In the middle of said drama, we make plans to move to Florida.

2007: Chemo, chemo, and more chemo. Plus some homeschooling and lots of soccer. Which brings us up to yesterdays' celebration dinner.