The most important blog you'll read in the next 5 minutes

No I'm not embarrassed that I'm reaching for the garter...
I'm embarrassed  that I thought it was a good idea to
highlight my hair.

Today is just another day for most of the world, but not for me and my family. 9 years ago today I married the luckiest girl in the world, no wait, I said that wrong… 9 years ago today I became the luckiest girl in the world when I married, no, that’s not right either. 9 years ago today I married my best friend and not only can I still tolerate her today, I am so desperately in love with her that it makes my head swim a little bit. We joke back and forth about which one of us married up and which one got the better end of the deal but in truth we both lucked out because our strengths and weaknesses offset each other and allow the whole to be so much more than the sum of its parts. The best thing about being a part of a healthy and Godly marriage is that not only are we strong where the other is weak, that strength coupled with the love we have for one another compels the struggling partner to grow in the areas they fall short. Marrying Hannah Beth has made me a much better man than I could have ever been alone.

Hannah the hot momma

600 miles from the nearest family, without a job and steady income, and two little boys that were obviously exhibiting signs that something was really wrong was where we found ourselves five years ago. Hannah was still working as a server in a local restaurant and had been adopted as the resident mother figure even though she was only 23 years old (not that she ever looked a day over 21). I was building some furniture for a local consignment shop and doing odd jobs for families within our church. Caleb was pooping in his dresser drawer. Andrew and Joel were pooping on everything they could reach and some things they couldn’t.

Dreams and struggles and toy boxes

In early 2006 we were faced with situations that threatened to overwhelm us. We had two little boys almost two years old who were at the developmental age of a 6 month old. We had an unbelievably strong willed little boy almost three years old. I was working full time for a parachurch organization and our support level was less than $1,000 a month. Hannah was at work as a server nearly every moment I wasn’t in the office. Our finances were in the toilet considering all we were up against, including a 21 year old who could eat his weight in Oreos every day. To top it all off the ministry was undergoing a restructuring that completely changed my job description and position within the ministry.

My kids poop in their own hair.

Rarrrrrrrrrrr

At about 16 months Andrew and Joel went through about two weeks where they regressed back to the developmental age of a 6 month old. Hannah and I use the 6 month old age because several months after we moved back to TX they were evaluated at that level, even though they were about 26 months at that point. Everything that we had come to love about our boys began to slip away, or at least that’s what we felt like. We battled things we never imagined possible.

I need to explain that these pictures I'm posting with these blogs are before the dreaded 16 month mark. We actually stopped taking pictures since they were almost always screaming and when they weren't we were too tired to think about a camera. This is just a taste of the happy boys we had before.

From good to bad and bad to worse.

I’m gonna tell this story as I remember it so take that for what it’s worth. Way back in 2005 we were living in eastern Tennessee. I worked at a parachurch organization as their events coordinator and Hannah was working as a server at a local restaurant. On one fine TN afternoon the twins had a clinic visit scheduled for their 15 months vaccinations. Hannah was also scheduled for work that day and since she made all the real money as a server (people are really generous when you give them a sob-story about moving across the country to minister) taxi-duty fell to Dad that day. I loaded all three little boys up and headed across town for what I anticipated would be quite an adventure.