20 Years of Dreaming

When you find “THE ONE” whom God has sent just for you, you start dreaming of your life together. You dream of your wedding day. Then you imagine what kind of house you will live in. What kind of jobs you’ll have. The cars you’ll drive. And then how many kids you’ll have, what they will look like, and what their names will be. Dreaming seems to define your dating relationship.

 But then one day it happens and you don an expensive white dress with a long veil on a very rainy day and walk down the isle toward the man of your dreams. Or at least I did. Twenty years ago this very day, my dad took me by the arm and my parents gave me away to the person God had set apart for me to marry. Stewart and I had been planning that day almost since we had started dating 4 years earlier, but most especially in the 18 months of our engagement. It was a wonderful and happy day. It could not have been any better! (Except my hair. I was never happy with how my hair looks in the pictures!)



After the honeymoon, real life set in, but Stewart and I never stopped dreaming. Even when times seemed hopeless and we wanted to just throw away any dreams we ever had, hope wouldn’t let us give up. Our God, who loves to do more than we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) always surprised us with what was around the bend. Our little dreams somehow always came true but always with a little lagniappe added to them. That’s just how our God is. Always good. Always faithful. Always awe-inspiring in His deeds. (Psalm 66)

 

One of our big dreams was to one day have a house that could accommodate a baby grand piano. This idea came about because I fell in love with Kawai pianos when I was in school at Louisiana College. LC only had Kawais in the music department, and being a music major, I played most all of them. Stewart was in and out of the music building, so he had played them, too. I loved the touch of the keys and the sound that came from them. Since I spent so much practice and performance time on them, I knew how they would react like the back of my hand. I just fell in love with Kawai! However, I knew the dream of owning one was a very far off dream.

 

This past August, we bought our forever home, and as we were moving my old Baldwin spinet piano in, we said, “The baby grand will go here!” There was plenty of room in a little nook in the den. We thought the day of owning a grand piano was still far away. But a couple of months ago, Stewart said, “What if we got a baby grand for our 20thanniversary?”

 

I was taken aback. The plan had always been that we were going to Hawaii for our 20th.  As this year has progressed though, we had become increasingly aware that a big trip like that was probably not going to fit into the schedule. Our summer is busy, and Stewart is going to Israel in the fall. There was just no way we could take another huge chunk of time off. But getting our dream piano now? Could it happen? Could we pull it off?

 

As you can see, we did. 






Twenty years ago today, I thought all my dreams had come true. I didn’t think I could love Stewart Holloway anymore than I did that day, but 20 years, 2 kids, 4 addresses, 3 churches, and lots of love, loss, laughs, and labor for the Lord in between, I love him exponentially more today than our wedding day! He makes my dreams come true all the time. And that is more than I could have ever dreamt of! Happy 20th anniversary, Stewart! You are still my dream guy. Thanks for continuing to make my dreams come true!

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