This one's dedicated to the one I love

On Tuesday, David and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Wow, 8 years! It has gone by so very fast, and I so look forward to many more years with this special fella of mine. In honor of our special day, I thought it would be fun to recap some special memories and milestones of our time together. Sadly, there are no digital pictures to recap our journey together, as that was before our days of Nikon. Maybe one day I will take the time to scan in a few, but that would take some digging through storage, and with our busy lifestyle that is not likely to happen any time soon! Ha!
In the meantime, a simple time line of our journey will have to do:

• July 2000, David and I actually met what will be 10 years ago this summer in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a new youth pastor at a church in Marmaduke, Arkansas, and I was in grad school at the University of Georgia. We met at MFUGE, a christian camp with an emphasis on missions sponsored and put on by LifeWay, which is very near and dear to our hearts.

• September 2000 - April 2001 We courted long distance between Athens and Marmaduke.
• November 2000 David experienced UGA football for the first time between the hedges against the ramblin' wreck of Ga Tech! He was pretty amazed at the intense hatred between the two teams!
• April 2, 2001 David decided it would be cheaper to buy a ring than multiple plane tickets, so he popped the question over sweet tea!
• May 2001 I moved to Marmaduke and lived with our pastor's MIL - just to be sure we really did love each other!
• January 2002 David and I were married in my hometown at my home church in Statesboro, Georgia in the midst of the first ice storm in South Ga in 10 years, of course!
• January 2002 - March 2003 We continued to serve the youth at FBC Marmaduke. What a wonderful season this was for us.
• March 2003 We left AR and moved to GA (or so we thought). We lived with my mom for two months.
• May 2003 We served together at MFUGE in Nashville! This was one of the greatest summers of our lives. The Lord spoke to us so audibly and loved on us through an awesome staff. I led a games and recreation track, and David led a PCY track.
• August 2003 We loaded up all our belongings into our one car and moved to New Orleans for David to attend seminary.
• May 2004 We worked MFUGE camp again in Nashville. I served as a site director, and David did PCY - painting, construction, and yard work.
• May 2005 David graduated from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and we served our final summer of camp together with MFUGE in Mobile. It was such a fun summer. David was the director, and I was the site director, so we spent our weeks riding around to ministry sites together - it was awesome!
• August 2005 We moved to Atlanta. David began his one year internship at First Baptist Atlanta and I began my job at the Heiskell School.
• May 27, 2006 We welcomed Carter Stokes O'Dell into the world weighing 9 lbs 15 ounces and 22 inches long. This was truly one of the greatest days of our life!
  


• June 2006 David took a new ministry position at Sandy Plains Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga as the pastor to young families.
• March 2007 We bought our very first home in Marietta, Georgia.
• July 2007 We welcomed Summer Journey O'Dell into the world weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long. Another of those greatest days ever!



• November 2007 David took his first pastorate at our current church, First Baptist Church Austell.
• July 2008 We bought our second home, a house in Austell.
• August 2008 We welcomed Tilly Brooke O'Dell into our family weighing 8 lbs and 21 inches long. Another awesome day for our family.



• September 2008 Carter began school for the first time at the Heiskell School in the Builder's Class.


• November 2008 Tilly had surgery to remove her right ovary and fallopian tube due to an injury occurring while she was in the womb.



• June 2008 We took our first family trip to the beach in Destin, Florida.





September 2009 Summer started school for the first time at Heiskell. Carter moved to the Explorer's class.



September 2009 We learned that we would once again become parents! What incredible news!
December 2009 We welcomed Hundley into our home, our first family pet.



January 2010 We found out baby O'Dell #4 is going to be a GIRL! How exciting! Much more to come on her later.
January 2010 David and I are celebrating 8 years of marriage, unbelievable! I look forward to many more years with you, babe! I would not want to be on this crazy journey of our life with anyone else, and I would not trade any of it for the world. You are my favorite, and I love you to the moon and back! Happy Anniversary!