A memorable annivesary

Of the 26 wedding anniversaries Susan and I have had since March 23, 1985, I think this week’s was the first one we celebrated with an MRI. Why not? If silver is good for 25 years, then radiology works for 26. It was a double celebration because her scan was stable again. Even one of UCLA’s top neuro-radiologists chimed in after viewing the results to confirm her tumor hasn’t grown since last time. We are thankful. We got in for this MRI a month early since Susan has been struggling more lately with increased fatigue, confusion, and occasional vomiting. By ruling out tumor growth, I can put my mind at rest as we consider other causes like steroid adjustments. We’ll meet with a UCLA endocrinologist next week to sort it out rather than wait a month to see the one in Long Beach. We enjoyed a quiet, delicious Italian dinner at Marino’s in Bellflower to top off our day.

Every year at this time I consider how God has blessed me with Susan as the coming of spring brings reminders of when we met nearly 30 years ago. We met at church, on the 2nd floor balcony of the education building when I first attended the college group. Along with Susan, I met some of my soon-to-be-new friends and family. There was brother Randy Romberg, cousin Buddy Feenstra, friend Don Murashima, and cousin Gary Romberg who led worship while seminary student Kevin Korver led the group. I’d been invited by a friend from high school I thought I was dating. You know how guys are always the last to know what’s going on in a relationship? Yup. Barbie had already breezed past me for other prospects (we were actually good friends anyway), so I must have had a neon “available” sign floating above my head. There were so many really nice, good-looking young ladies there, I found I liked Emmanuel Reformed Church quite a lot. I kept coming back. I also began discovering God’s love for me like never before – but I’m just saying. I don’t think I’m the only kid who ever followed a girl to church.
 

Soon I found myself on a college group retreat in Solvang sitting at dinner across from Susan Romberg over a bowl of Anderson’s pea soup. I must have had a really low-frequency antenna because I had no idea she was winning a feminine scrum to see who had dibs on the new guy. All I knew is I liked the soup. But the girl in front of me was pretty nice too, and had beautiful blue eyes. We started dating and soon became inseparable.
 

We pretty much knew within our first year together that it would be the first of many. I proposed marriage at Tommy’s in LA less than two years later, and that’s another story. Our wedding would wait until March of 1985 as UCLA's spring break began. Planning the ceremony before that school year seemed too soon – but we couldn’t stand to wait until after, so the university dictated our wedding date. I finished my last final and winged it to church for our wedding rehearsal and dinner. Our wedding itself was a surreal blur of a day with family, friends, flowers, photos, and me gripping the end of the front pew with white knuckles as Susan walked down the aisle. A short while later we held hands tightly near our wedding party, standing side by side as we were launched into married life. Like getting fastened into a roller coaster car, we both were thinking, "Here we go..."
 

Valentine's dinner, mid-1990s

God gave me so much during that season that began in early 1982 – a church home, a wife, a new family, lots of friends, and deep growth in a lifelong faith that by grace will continue until I get to heaven. But in Susan, he’s blessed me richly. She helped lead me to know God and modeled out for me what it means to serve him. Though not removed at all from normal human failings, the purity in her heart for God has continually caused me to take hold of the grace he has for me as well. She has a super strong sense of commitment and responsibility that she’s countless times allowed to trump her feelings. Her faithfulness has been an anchor of stability in our marriage and our home, a refuge that created a sense of freedom. Her unmovable sense of humor means we can be serious when we need to and mess around when we want to, which is most of the time.
 

In Susan, I married up – into being a person I never thought I could be, into a life I never knew I could have, and into knowing a God I never knew was so real. I thank God for giving the type of woman described in Proverbs 31: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.”
 

Not only that, but we’re crazy about each other and still are inseparable. There’s just nothing else we prefer than being together, even if that means spending the day at a cancer clinic. I think that’s a gift. As we celebrate our 26th anniversary, we don’t know if we’ll have a 27th. But a few years ago, we didn’t know if we’d have a 25th. God has been good to us. We’ll enjoy as many more anniversaries as he gives us.