A truly "Happy Anniversary"

Yesterday Bryan and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. It was a day full of travel..taking some of our family to the Portland airport and then heading home ourselves. We are going to try to get away for a night in Seattle (with a free hotel room we have with our credit card) at the end of the month so we are looking forward to that!
As I reflect on our last 11 years it is with great joy. Each memory is not a bed of roses, but the Lord continues to use each situation to mold us more and more into His image and, by His grace, we fall deeper in love with Him and with each other.
I read a quote a few years ago by Lars Gren (Elizabeth Elliots husband) and it has been a needed reminder on many occasion!

"A wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy."

I do not do this perfectly, by any stretch, but it is my desire to delight and enjoy all the blessings that come (and they are many, many, many) with having Bryan as my husband and, when his faults seem to become large in my heart and mind, to remember that I too am a sinner and handle many situations in an ungodly way....but we both have a great God, perfectly holy, Who still looks upon us with love and compassion and forgiveness though our sin cost Him His only Son. The forgiveness He grants us does not benefit Him at all yet it changes our lives forever...how could we not follow in His footsteps?!!!!
We also received the sweetest anniversary gift we have ever been given, as well. Waiting for us, in our mail, was a DVD from CWA (our adoption agency) with video of the boys at the orphanage. The are not words to express how my heart swelled and the tears flowed as I watched our boys run, kick a soccer ball, sing a praise song to Jesus, pray before their meal, eat and sleep. They are beautiful!!!!! I wish you all could sit in our living room and watch with us as we will be watching that DVD very often. Caleb reminds me a lot of Titus' personality (and for those of you who know Titus well, the thought will make you laugh as much as we are!) and Samuel seems a bit quieter but FULL of precious smiles!!!
Please pray with us that our request will be read tomorrow by the judge here in Yakima and that our dossier could leave for Ethiopia soon!