HAPPY 30 YEARS!

HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY !!!

We truly praise the Lord for His mighty faithfulness to us, blessing us with 30 years of marriage!

1977 The year we met. All College Formal 3/4/78

1979 Dad a sophomore at SJU and me a junior at CSB. I am wearing the new red sweatshirt soon to get a Johnny Rat picture on it just like his red sweatshirt, and holding the new candlestick that he had hand-made for me. These were his birthday gifts for me.
1981~February 14...Our wedding day! Mild and warm. The red Pinto wagon on the left was our car. The light blue pinto and green station wagon were Grandma and Grandpa Molitor's cars. It doesn't look like Dad is struggling too hard, does it?
Us with our parents on our wedding day. Dad was wearing the suit his dad wore for his own wedding. I made my veil, and your Dad gave me the opal necklace I wore. I chose daisies for the wedding because they were inexpensive. Our focus in getting ready for our wedding was almost entirely put into the service. Sometimes I laugh when I think of how we decorated and the flowers, etc. I mean--it was Valentines Day! You think I would have at least had a red theme! And it really was important to us that it was Valentines Day! We had decided to switch to February from June when we saw that Valentines Day was on a Saturday! Anyway, the service itself, the invitations, the music, and the program were all put together by us with much thought, and they are still very meaningful when I see and listen to them today (we audio-recorded the service). After all, it is the life that follows after the wedding that makes all the difference.
One of the photos we took on our honeymoon at Long Lake by Brainerd, MN. You can see that all the snow is gone due to many days of unexpected warm weather. It was beautiful! However, we had planned to go cross-country skiing. So instead, we joined the old farmers sitting out on the ice by their little ice-holes, and we ice-fished almost every day. And of course we spent quite a bit of time filleting all the fish. The fish were great eating, and we had lots of fun! (P.S. We did these pictures ourselves in a dark room; that is why it is in black and white. NOT because it was so long ago!!)
After living in Rochester, MN, for 6 months and Jamestown, ND, for 2 1/2 years, and Ashland, WI, for 9 months, and Blaine, MN, for 10 months,...we settled in our first home in Lauderdale in 1985 (2 days before David was born! He came unexpectedly 2 weeks early!) Many happy years of our life were spent in this little abode. The main happinesses were the growing of our family from 3 to 10! Two of those little blessings can be seen in the picture, John and Esther.
Some pictures of our family through the years.

1992
The last Christmas at Lauderdale. 2002
One of our many visits to our friends, the Gossetts. This would have been 2001.

Summer of 2004

Spring 2005 at Rebecca's Senior Recital before she graduated from high school.

July 2005 on our way down to Georgia.
Bowling when Ruth came home for Christmas 2005.

Thanksgiving Day 2006. This was the year that Amanda spent Thanksgiving with us.

December 2007, with Adam,our soon-to-be son-in-law!

Dad and me when we were out for supper with a few of our children when we visited John at Northwestern University.

So many wonderful blessings from God over all these years that I can say and know that it is true, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life". And both Dad and I humbly acknowledge that it is our faithful Lord himself that has kept us faithfully together, and blessed our love with a richer deepness than we could have known at the beginning.

"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof " Ecclesiastes 7:8

I love you, Paul!

Joyce