"So much has changed.yet so much the same."

I apologize for being reflective in two back-to-back blogs, so I promise a fun one next time, but this weekend has marked the beginning of our fourth decades in life (we both turned 30 years old this weekend). Birthdays, like New Year’s Day, can be a time when we look back on where we have come and with this being a milestone birthday, it’s strange to think that a decade ago we had just barely survived Y2K and had returned to Chicago for our Spring semester at Moody. Five years ago we were a crazy engaged couple wearing out our car tires to be together as much as possible as we eagerly anticipated the wedding that still seemed like an eternity away. One year ago, we were finalizing our family/friends/church visiting schedule for our last three months in the US. Thinking about our birthdays last year, we remembered the fancy steak restaurant that Travis’ parents treated us to. Then we smiled at the memory of one year ago today when we spent the whole day making an igloo out of snow and ice – and, of course, the surprisingly toasty night that we spent sleeping inside.

 

So much has changed in the past year. Snow is all but a distant memory, along with the feeling of owning a car, Dairy Queen Blizzards (or Wendy’s Frostys), Subway $5 footlongs, Walmarts, American commercials, and being able to blend in with society when out in public. Obviously a lot has changed this past year, but at the same time, both of us feel nothing new about being on this side of the 30-year-old threshold. We were comforted by some slightly more “mature” folks that we haven’t reached the proverbial “top of the hill” yet so I guess we are still on the way up (when is someone officially considered “over the hill?”). Anyway, despite the changes of this past year, we still have our families (with whom we are able to talk via skype on a regular basis), we still have the work that God has called us to, we still have healthy bodies with which to pursue our goals, we still have each other (which is a major blessing for me!), and we have the optimistic excitement of what God is going to do in our future. The packaging is very different, but the essentials are still the same, and for that we are grateful to God!

Three decades down…and the excitement is just beginning!