30 years ago today at about this time, we were experiencing our last hour as Lloyd Vanderkwaak and Vicki Veenstra. We were about to be married, to become Lloyd and Vicki Vanderkwaak at the 7PM marriage ceremony at Racine CRC. We were filled with anticipation for married life. At that time, we had no idea that Kristin, Nicholas, Reuben, or Kim would become our children. We had no idea that Salome and Michael would come under our wings. We had no idea that Curt, and Jess, and Heidi, and Paul would be entering/enriching our lives. We had no idea of how God would use us in the lives of people in various places.

Looking back now, 30 years later, we are filled withSO good!

Here’s how we spent this special day:

*We slept in to 7AM on a Monday morning, which is VERY unusual for two people who like to work, travel and run.
*We baked/brought a HUGE plate of mini-chocolate chip cookies to Myles Dudley, because he is 5 years old today.
*We ran two errands that were important to us, because today was our only “free” day for this whole week.
*We went to THE WAVELAND CAFE for late AM breakfast. Waveland is a Des Moines INSTITUTION. Big, greasy hometown breakfast:)
*We went to East Village in Des Moines, to visit the Sticks Gallery, as well as numerous other art and gift shops in the area.
*We went to GateWay Market downtown, to pick up some fresh fish (Salmon), veggies (Brussel sprouts and sugar snap peas), a bottle of good wine and a specialty dessert for this evening.
*We read our old love letters to eachother:) We have two shoe-boxes full of love letters that we wrote to eachother between 1976-1977, during times of absence. We re-realized some new things about eachother in the process. It was fun to “look back” as we also “look forward”. Our desire is still the same: For God to use us for His purposes. We realized that we were asking lots of questions years ago, and that we continue to do so:)
*We talked about our future goals and actually decided a few things!
*We did a few more errands, and solved a few computer issues we were facing.
*We are about to cook supper and spend a romantic evening together. Gotta finish the TV news first.
*Tomorrow and the next day, we will both be very engaged in the lives of others and organizations. Both days will start early, 5:15AM, with runs with friends.
*We are thankful for days like today, when we can relax/reflect and fire up for the rest of the week!

WE PRAISE GOD FOR EACHOTHER, FOR 30 YEARS TOGETHER! WE ARE BEST FRIENDS, AND LOVE EACHOTHER MORE AND MORE EACH DAY!