MY PARENTS.

I took my dad to show and tell once in elementary school.

I was so proud to show him off to all of my friends!

He wore his uniform and talked about his job in the Coast Guard,

which I thought was really cool because he flew airplanes and rescued people.

My mom was a class mom and my troop leader.

She chaperoned school field trips and helped me bake cookies for my teachers.

She worked at our veterinarian's office,

so sometimes I got to bottle-feed kittens and puppies or syringe feed baby birds.

She taught me to sew. She taught me how to use a camera.

She also let me stay home from school on my birthday to go shopping and to lunch.

I thought she had a pretty amazing job.

FORTY-FIVE.

These two cool cats just celebrated their forty-fifth wedding anniversary.

That in itself is a reason to celebrate. I still feel like a newly-wed compared to them!

My first thought was to say that they make marriage look easy.

But, my thought after that is that they make marriage look worth it.

It is worth something when you commit,

when you are determined to have a long marriage and life together,

no matter what that path looks like.

Something else that stands out to me about my mom and dad is that they share:

THEY ARE GIVERS.

Givers of time, givers of money, givers of practical needs, givers of a place to stay.

The list could go on.

They have lived their lives giving out of little and giving out of much.

They have given to strangers, to friends, to organizations, to individuals.

They have given to my sister and me our whole lives, blessed us whether we needed it or not.

And now, they bless their grandchildren - whether they need it or not!

They have been the answer to someone else's prayer probably more times than they really know.

I LOVE THAT ABOUT THEM.

And I love that their legacy will branch out far and wide,

beyond our family because of the places they have given and sown.

So happy anniversary to two of the greatest people I know.

I am pretty sure they never imagined where their life would take them when they said,

"I DO,"

as teenagers, fresh out of high school, newly enlisted in the military.

But if I get to give my opinion, I think its been a really good journey.