My 30th birthday weekend was spent with my two loves. I wanted nothing more than spending one of my favorite months of the year with my family and friends. March has always been a favorite of mine, but now more than ever, does it hold a special place in my heart for many reasons. Charlie and I were married in March three years ago on the 23rd, we got engaged in 2012 on March 31st, we found out we were expecting last year on March 27th, and of course, its the month I always turn a year older.
Looking back over the past 30 years, I sometimes am in awe of what the Lord has blessed me with. Before I came to know the Lord, I feel I always wanted more, compared what I had to others, and strived to "BE THE BEST." Little did I know then, that life is not about anything of those things. In fact, its about quite the opposite.
Here's a little nostalgia as I type away into the past...
Over the past 30 years, I spent 13% of my life in Clemson, South Carolina. I like to call this chapter in my life "my growing up years." A friend I know always says, "you send your kids away to college to not have to watch them grow up." This makes me laugh because it is so true. Some of my best memories and friendships were cultivated at Clemson. To this day, I have 7 best friends a girl could ask for. Yes, my college friends, and to this day, it still feels like old times when we are together. There is not one of them I could go 2 months without talking too, but walk into a room, and it feel like it was yesterday since we talked. That's true friendship. We laugh together, cry together, pray together and share our inner most feelings. Its a special bond.
60% of my life thus far was spent growing up in Mooresville, North Carolina. Little ol' Mooresville is not little anymore. I sometimes miss the small town Mooresville, but even though it has grown, my love for the "small town" has never faded. I grew up beside a Strawberry Farm, Carrigan Farms, a family farm on my grandmothers side. My parents built the house I grew up in 1991. To this day my parents still live there, and my room at the end of the hallway still has the light pink carpet I picked out when I was four years old. If I could pick 3 words/things that sum up my memories of Mooresville, I would pick: Prospect Presbyterian Church, Mama's Cooking every night (the four of us sitting around the kitchen table for supper), and Granny. All three of these things have had a profound impact on who I am today.
Nearly a quarter of my life, I have known Charlie. If someone were to ask me when did I really get to know the Lord, I would say when I met my husband. I have never met a male as humble, caring and selfless as my husband. I knew I would marry him the first time he came to visit me when I lived in Charlotte. We had gone on a date prior, but when he rolled into town in his blue Chevy truck and stepped out wearing this pink polo, I was smitten!
And now, only a small portion of the last 30 years have I been a mother, but I can say it has had the most profound impact on my life. Margaret, an infant, so helpless, is dependent upon me for everything. Every second, every need. Having Margaret, marrying Charlie, and knowing the Lord has changed my priorities and heart. I hope the next 30 years is full of warm loving memories like my last 30. As I type this, I think of that song by Tim McGraw, "my next 30 years," my favorite stanza:
My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife (insert husband)
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years...
The only thing I pray for in the next 30 years is health for my entire family, happiness and lots of loving memories.
