Happy Anniversary!

Today is my parents' anniversary. Hmmm, let's see . . . they got married in 1967, I believe, so that would be . . . yes! Their 38th anniversary! I think they have the neatest story of how they met. As they always say, President Kennedy brought them together! My dad was going into his junior year at the Air Force Academy, and my mom had just graduated from high school over in Kaiserslatern (sp? I know that's wrong), Germany. Her dad was also Air Force, and they had been reassigned right before her senior year of high school. She had really wanted to stay back in Virginia to finish high school, but her dad insisted that the family stay together. SO she moved and graduated from high school over there. Back then, the Air Force Academy sent students on summer tours of Europe, and that was what my dad was doing. His group was staying at a hotel in Weisbaden when President Kennedy came through on his big Germany tour. His entourage needed the hotel, so my dad and the other cadets were kicked out and sent down to Ramstein AB, where my mom was. There was not much for entertainment, so the wives club pulled together a dance, scouring the countryside for all eligible females. My mom was one, so she went. When she walked into the Officers' Club, one hostess led her towards my dad, saying, "Here is a cadet I think you would really enjoy talking to." And the rest is history! No, my parents did hit it off that night, but it took a long time for anything to really come of it. My dad continued on his tour, but after it was done, he took some leave and came back to visit my mom (my grandma says he had lost so much weight that his pants were about to fall off him!). My mom went off to Vassar at the end of that summer, and he continued on at USAFA. They wrote many letters. My dad eventually graduated and went to pilot training. They talked of marriage, but my mom, being a "liberated" female, wasn't sure how a family and all would fit into her plans. My dad was to go to Vietnam in 1967, and they had decided to wait until he got back to get married. But then my mom realized that she wanted to be married before he left, so on her spring break, she just up and left for Sumter, SC, where he was in training in his aircraft. They pulled a really quick wedding together and were married in the chapel there at Shaw AFB. They had just a few days together before mom had to go back to school, and then my dad left for a year in Vietnam, so they were separated basically their entire first year of marriage. So when they talk about "the first year they lived together", you can be assured that they are talking about after they got married! Later on they were assigned to Shaw AFB, and that is where they came to know the Lord together at their pastor's house. And the Lord then worked on my mom's heart, giving her a desire for children, and so that resulted in my brother and me! Their marriage is a real testimony of the Lord's leading and guiding, even though they were not Christians at the time they met. We praise the Lord for their faithfulness to each other and to Him through these years!