Thursday, August 2, 2007

Show and Tell Friday


Kelli over at" There is No Place Like Home", is the host of Friday Show and Tell. She explains it this way:"Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!"
Click on the link below to join the list!
There is no place like home

Love Letters

My husband and I met and 2 days later he proposed. We were married six weeks later. I often wondered how we have had such an incredible marriage, and decided that this would be my show and tell for the week.

Right after we married Bill enlisted in the military, so we had several months apart. So although we did not date, we were able to get to know each other through the letters.

Several times in the first six years we were apart due to military assignments(in fact we were apart over 1.5 years in the first six if you added up the time). So we wrote letters. And more letters. And I keep journals of the activities of the growing family. So here are over 167 letters in this photo.


Here is another shot, more organized. It is amazing how much we learned about each other. And we were able to express goals, dreams and fears without any pressure.



Then the habit stuck. Before cell phones, when Bill was at work he sometimes would have a moment that he thought about me, so he would use a police report form and write me a note. Sometimes, because the kids took up so much of our time, the letters gave us an intimacy. The older I am the more I think back and appreciate these notes.



I would be struck by something, and would quickly make a note for Bill. This is from a magazine ad.



I then let Bill know that he was my lifesaver!

For Christmas 1991 we had been apart for 3 months, so when we were reunited, we gave each other carefully crafted cards. This is the envelope and the inside.



I must say that this is all made with a grown man using children's scissors. He also helped the oldest create a special card for Momma.

I am sharing these letters on Show and Tell because it is something that I value. Many times we wives forget that marriage is not like in the movies, and it takes a tremendous amount of time for each other. We are to cleave unto our spouse. But, when we spend time with our girlfriends, our parents, our children, or even a hobby to the neglect of our spouse, then we are in trouble.

I am ever so grateful that I had an opportunity to learn this due to the situation, that marriage, and the love you have needs to be constantly fed, loved and nurtured. Marriage in the United States seems to come with an escape clause. God told us that marriage is a covenant. He held marriage with importance, and so should we.

20 comments:

Myrna said...

What a beautiful tribute to your marriage! You are right about the importance of giving your marriage and husband priority over the distractions of life. Even though some of those activities are valid and important, they are secondary.

You have a sweet story. I enjoyed hearing about it.

Unknown said...

I loved this post! I think tomorrow I will go dig out our old love letters!!! *blushing*

What a neat idea and how sweet that your "Billy" made that homemade card!

Betty said...

What a sweet post....my husband, then boyfriend, dated two years before we married. He was away at college and we wrote each other Mondays through Fridays. I still have all his letters from 47 years ago.

Thanks for sharing.....Please come visit me again.....Betty

Hootin Anni said...

Wonderful!! Your courtship and marriage sounds a lot like ours! We had our first date, and the 2nd date he proposed to me, I accepted, and two months later we married. Been married nearly 40 years!!

Love your letters!! A great S&T

Susan said...

Wonderful Show & Tell, Jennifer. The written word is so powerful - after all that is how our God chose to communicate with us. I hope every once in awhile you sit down and re-read a few of these!! I'm sure it is a very large contributing factor to your strong and wonderful marriage.
Susan

Lori said...

What a great show and tell.
How neat that you still have all of those letter.

Thanks for visting my site. Feel free to come back anytime.

Anonymous said...

Oh this is rich! What a wonderful blessing to get to know each other through letters. You are blessed indeed!

Carole Burant said...

I can't even imagine how hard it was to be newly married, barely knowing each other and yet having to be separated like that...your letters to each other were certainly a God send!! I love it that you've kept these letters all these years...they are proof of what a life line they were!! xo

Jennifer said...

What a wonderful story and what special treasures! Thanks for sharing...

LadySnow said...

Thank you for sharing your letters with us. That is awesome that it has become a habit with your hubby to write you letters. =)

someone else said...

Beautiful words and thoughts, and a very sweet show and tell.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing something so personal. What a lovely gift. I have a few letters from Carl too. My step daughter just came home from California. Her husband is in the army and will be gone for about a year. They are very newly married and trying to make things work. I will have to show her you show and tell when she comes over on Sunday for dinner.

Thanks you for all the kind words about my little guy Brody and enjoy the fudge. :)


Nikki

TO BECOME said...

I am beginning to wonder if you will ever write anything that I don't agree with. Jim and I only knew each other from September of one year before we were married in March of the next year. We didn't get to see each other that often before we married because he lived 200 miles away. But we did write letters. I still have all my letters also. I love them to this day. My kids were making fun a while back when they were looking at them and I had signed my name with Your friend, connie. That was in Septerber before we were engaged in December. That is what he was at first. Now days, it seems people want to skip the friend part and go right to the sex before marriage. We didn't "know" each other before marriage in the bibical way of knowing but we knew the desires of each other hearts our likes and dislikes. Our convictions and what we believed. Great times!! and they only have gotten better down through the ages.lol connie

P.s. Thank you for your post and bringing back those precious memories. connie from Texas

Sharon said...

This was so beautiful! I enjoyed reading your sweet story.

Pen of Jen said...

Myrna Thank you for stopping by! I am glad that you enjoyed this.

Pam...My Billy is my love!

Betty, I know forbidding a disaster, that I will have the letters another 28 years!! I am reassured by your note that you still have yours!

Hootin'anni-I am happy to read that I am not alone! Hip hip hurray for 40 years!

Susan-absolutely correct. By writing to eachother we have built deep foundations!

Lori- thank you for stopping by. I really enjoyed visiting and love your home!

Ellen I think so to!

Pea you are right on..a life line indeed that the children's children need to read.

Jennifer thanks for reading...I love sharing this.

Lady_msnow I love that I have these letters too. It has been a wonderful memory.

Morning Glory..thank you so much for stopping by

Nikki Thanks for coming over here. I will most certainly be back.

Connie I feel that we have many many similarities and I am so pleased to know that we share a similar dating(courtship)

Sharon thank you for reading this.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful, sweet post. You are so right about the importance of marriage and the attention it needs.

Those letters and cards are wonderful treasures.

Lyndy said...

What a wonderful post and what a treasure those letters are.

Thanks for sharing. Wishing you and your family a blessed weekend.

Hugs,
Lyndy

Tammy said...

Hi Jennifer...this is my first time with Show and Tell, so I was scrolling through the links - and not only do I love your post, but I can also identify with it!
My husband had joined the Navy right before we had married, and we spent our first three years of marriage having him continually going in and out of deployments. Just four months after our wedding, he was gone for a half a year. We wrote volumes and volumes of letters, and grew closer than ever through those...just as you did.

We also spoke into tape recorders and sent the tapes, since phone access was limited.

I loved how you both made those cards and were so creative with the magazine ads...wonderful!

And I so agree what you said about marriage!

Blessings!

Kelli said...

Such a wonderful show and tell! YOur old love letters are true treasures...so romantic!!

Kelli

Anonymous said...

Those letters are SO precious! Thanks for the reminder about nurturing our marriages - truer words were never spoken! Thanks for a great Show & Tell Friday!