It is hard for me to believe that today marks our seventh wedding anniversary. Sometimes it seems like time has flown by, and at other times, it seems like we’ve been married for longer than seven years. We are really blessed. Some of the events of the past seven years include the following:

• three more children (Keegan was eight years old when we married)
• three household moves
• the death of my father
• my mother-in-law’s hospitalization and long recovery from dilated cardiomyopathy, as well as a later surgery to replace both of her knees
• the death of both of Michele’s grandfathers
• the death of one of Michele’s uncles as well as two uncles and an aunt of mine
• the legal adoption of Keegan as my son
• Michele’s extended neurological illness (which has since reoccurred)
• my hospitalizations for meningitis and other weird ailments including a severe case of the shingles
• purchase of two different minivans, and the sale of a car and one of those minivans
• the adoption of three dogs, two parakeets, several kittens, and several freshwater fish
• three job changes on my part
• three graduate courses taught
• more than 15 emergency room visits
• thousands of miles traveled to/from relatives and one plane trip as a family (to Maine)
• the purchase of two Mac computers
• several business trips made by me, including a trip to Sweden, two trips to the UK, and trips to various parts of the U.S.
• several other funerals and marriages of friends
• the marriages of a niece and a nephew

I’m surely forgetting some other important milestones, but this list covers a lot as it is. Happy anniversary to us!