Okay, I really am not that crazy. I don't have any idea when that date was..is..whatever. BUT! I do know that this week marks 12 years of living with Donnie. We didn't do things the old fashion traditional way. We kind of did this backwards. Pregnant. Moved in together. Bought a car together. Then got married.
According to Focus on the Family...
"Thirty-five out of 100 couples living together experienced a physical assault in a 12-month period; that's more than double the rate of violence among married couples, which is 15 out of 100.3 The top three problems for couples who live together before marriage are: drunkenness, adultery and drug abuse.4
"Men who live with their girlfriends before marrying them are more likely to be underemployed (before and after the marriage) than men who have not cohabited. Women who live with their boyfriends before marrying them are more likely to need to be employed full time to compensate for their husbands' underemployment. 5 "
"The dissolution rate for couples who lived together before marriage is 80 percent higher than it is for couples who didn't. 2"
They didn't even give a percent for adding a child into the mix before marriage. Have we made it big and had it easy? Heck no. But we made our family a family. We trust God and ask him for guidance everyday. We know that 12 years is not that long in the big picture. But to us (by us I mean, me) it's a time celebrate.
12 years ago I made Donnie a cheesecake to celebrate moving into together. It was only appropriate to make another one. Pretty sure it was much cheaper 12 years ago too!
Cheesecake
Crust:
1 package of graham crackers crushed
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
2 packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 T. flour
1 tsp. vanilla (today it got a tablespoon from one of my helpers)
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
Pour over crust. Bake 350 F for about an hour or so...you'll know when it's done.
Melt chocolate in a baggy and cut off the corner to make the designs.
Once it hardens you can add it to the top.
What a beautiful testimony to GRACE, Jena! No matter where you've been, no matter where you are, you can have a marriage without regrets. (It's not saying you can have a perfect marriage because marriage includes two sinners.) But, Christ is in the business of redemption. Because of Calvary, He takes all mistakes, and all errors, and all sins, and all regrets, and redeems them, and uses them—bringing beauty out of ashes—then, no matter how things started out, it's okay because your times are in His hands. (Isaiah 61:3)
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