My, How Things Change

And yet, how they stay the same.

I'm sitting here thinking about this weekend and how different things were sixteen years ago.

The year was 1993. Paul and I had just moved into our "starter" home. I never realized that he thought of this home as a starter home...and he never realized that the minute I stepped into the kitchen, I could see myself making cookies with my grandchildren in this home.

Fast forward two months...the night before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 1994. The alternator in our Oldsmobile went out before we got home, so a kind police officer gave us a ride. It was my first--and only--ride in a police car. It was the first--and only--time that I was considered a "subject." It was on that ride in the police car that I learned that there are no inside door handles in the backseat of a police car. Paul's brother, Brian, was at our house waiting for us. He was going to help us put new bathroom flooring in (since the aqua/green/yellow carpet in the bathroom didn't really match the new paint on the walls), but instead he helped Paul get our car home and do some late night car repair. By the time they had finished with the car, we realized that we were all snowed in. Brian spent the night on our living room couch.

Now...fast forward 16 years. Paul, Brian, and I are sitting here remembering that night. The year is 2010, and we have an audience of children ages 21 months all the way up to almost fourteen years old. Why is Brian here tonight? We've been celebrating Carrie's fourteenth birthday today.

My, how things change.
Paul, Brian, and I are sixteen years older. We have been blessed with Carrie, William, Joshua, and Matthew. Since 1994, I have driven the Oldsmobile and 4 Ford vehicles. Since 1994, we have had 3 bathroom floor coverings(including the lovely carpet that can still be seen in the floor of the bathroom closet). Our garage where Paul and Brian worked on the Olds is now our family room. The same family room where just today, Carrie blew out fourteen candles on her birthday brownies.

And yet, how they stay the same.
Sixteen years later, we are sitting here, sharing stories about family and friends. Laughing. Teasing. Griping. And more laughing. The same thing we were doing sixteen years ago...sitting in the same "starter" home we were sitting in sixteen years ago. In fact...sitting on the same couch and love seat we were sitting on sixteen years ago.

Yes, there are more wrinkles on my face. More gray in my hair.
In exchange for sixteen years of sunshine and rain.
More sunshine than rain.
Which translates into Joy.