September 28th is the day that brings my heart joy! I woke up too excited to sleep any more, so ready for the day’s events that I had to go out and run because frankly I did not know what to do with myself. I ran and ran thinking about the events the day would hold and how I did not even feel old enough to do what I was about to do. I realized that I would never again have life how a a single woman. I would now be making decisions that included another. I was so excited! It was the day I would marry my best friend.
I met Kevin my last semester of my senior year. After some not so great relationships, I was ready to be single and was loving it. I had finished my art degree early and could have graduated, but really wasn’t ready to get into the real world, so along side the coaxing of a friend, I signed up for a semester long mission trip to Africa . With the trip, I also decided to minor in intercultural studies and ended up taking a class that required an internship at a inner city youth program. That is where I met him for the first time. He had just returned from a trip to Argentina with his parents and we got into a discussion on the culture, travel, work, school, and more. In the course of the conversation we realized that we had both signed up for the Africa trip. Realizing that we had so many similar interests, Kevin finally asked me out after one of the youth program days. We gradually started seeing more and more of each other and when we finally hit the time to head to Africa 9/11 happened. Our team was devastated, but our professors promised us a trip and we ended up in Canada. Not nearly as exotic, Kevin and I were placed in ministry together and worked side by side together for the next 8 weeks. (Little did we both know that this would later become his profession, and that 12 years later we would continue to work side by side as a ministry team!)
He was much more ready to tie the knot than I was at the time. I dreamed of traveling the world and expierening so many different cultures. I wanted to be financially in place (although I had no idea what that entailed!) I wanted to have my time, to be by myself… free from responsibility. It took time and after about a year and a half, my soon to be husband was on a knee making me cry with joy.
It is hard to believe we are already 10 years in, a decade. In the last 10 years there has been lots of joy as well as lots of pain. If I have learned anything, I have learned that marriage takes work. A lot of work. Through having kids, buying a house, buying cars, having another kid, school, ministry, photography, having one more kid, losing another, travel, family, stress and everything that is added to our lives it is easy to lose sight of what marriage is. September 28, 2002, I chose to be a team with Kevin Feder. I chose to support and honor him and be his wife until death do we part. I chose to marry my best friend, and I am so glad I did.
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Photo by Amy Majors
Congrats! Nice last name, too!