Amy Blankenship
Jul 28, 2017 · 6 min read
My Family

“Life is a Funny Thing”

Life is a funny thing. I truly never thought I would be where I am today.

I remember about 28 years ago I met this young man through a friend. Well, technically we met in the McDonald’s drive-thru. It was the summer before I began my senior year in high school. My best friend had been nagging me to meet her boyfriends best friend. I kept saying, “I have a boyfriend, I’m not interested.”

Well, she had told him about me, and he decided to come through the drive thru where I worked. He ordered a small Coke, pulled forward and introduced himself. I was annoyed because I was working, so I just said, “hi.” I continued to work, but he came through again, ordering a small fry. He pulled up again and smiled. Without speaking, I took his money and thought, “Really?”

A few months later I broke up with my boyfriend (he was not a good guy), and was set up on a double date with this drive-thru guy. I thought “Alright, we’ll see.”

This was in September, the beginning of my senior year. This guy was already out of high school. So I went with my best friend and her boyfriend to Pizza Hut where I met this guy “officially.” My friend and I were pretty immature, trying to impress her boyfriend and my date with some way weird made up language we had. They were annoyed. We then went into a movie, but got bored with it and went for a car ride.

As I got in the back seat with my best friend my date slid back his seat and squished my foot. I yelped, and he swore at me! I immediately whispered to my friend, “What a jerk! I want to go home.” She encouraged me to give him another chance and explained that he was nervous. Irritated I continued with the date. The evening progressed, and I realized he was an alright guy. By the end of the night, I held his hand but didn’t think it would go anywhere. We spoke for a long time that evening, and I saw that he was kind and a good listener. I went home thinking, “maybe one more date and we’ll see.”

I’ve now been married to this young man for 27 years this September. We were married at the ages of 18 and 20 and had our first child ten months after we were married. We had two more children. In all two boys and then a girl. We were very poor for many years, but we made choices. Some good some not so good. Best choice ever for our family? I was a stay at home mom and have no regrets about that. With that came very tight finances. Which, we were alright with that, sometimes. Life wasn’t always easy raising three children on a limited income. We weren’t the perfect parents, but we learned along the way.

Many things have happened, changed and grown in the last 27 years. There have been happy and sad times like in any family. We’ve lost, we’ve loved, and we’ve celebrated. We’ve seen each of our children grow into amazing adults. We’ve watched them graduate from high school, and each of them is now married. We have two grand baby’s on the way. One is due any day. We are so proud of all of them. Mostly for the individuals they are. They are all so different and I love that about them. I’m so thankful how God has molded each of them differently, and I know that He will use each of them for his purpose.

God has grown my husband and me in so many ways. We are so much better with our finances. I’m open and think it’s important to share that we made horrible choices with credit cards etc. We declared bankruptcy twice in our marriage. We were not wise with the money God gave us. But, as we know God is abundantly gracious and merciful. He taught us the importance of being wise with his money. That’s the difference now. We know that all our blessings come from Him. So what we do with the money has meaning. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still not perfect with our finances, but we do think much more about where it goes now and how He would have us use it. I share this with you so you can feel encouraged that sometimes it just takes time. We are all so far from perfect, and God molds us along the way where we need to be molded. God has truly blessed us in so many ways. We’re so excited that in just a few short weeks we’ll be moving into our new home that has just been built. We feel so undeserving of it and always want to remember whose it is and where it came from.

We’ve always said it was puppy love when we got married. We had absolutely no idea what we were getting into. There were many fights early on, and not nice healthy ones either. We were very mean sometimes and had to learn how to argue in a healthy way. God saw us through that. Marriage isn’t easy; it’s a commitment that we make to each other. For better or worse. With all that said, I can’t believe what love I’ve been blessed with. Yes, this is the sappy part. I am so blessed to be married to this man. He has worked so hard over the years to provide for his family. He supported me abundantly (emotionally and financially) when I embarked on the adventure of nursing school in my 30’s. Then through my masters and soon my doctorate. He has been a supportive, loving husband and father. He has shown me love that I never imagined existed. My heavenly fathers love is is above everything, but he has truly blessed me with a man who knows how to love. My husband constantly reminds me of how much he loves me in so many different ways I couldn’t list them all.

I share all of this with you, not to brag or tell you how good we have it. It’s to encourage you. There were times in our marriage where things seemed hopeless with things like finances and other stresses. I never thought we’d be able to pay all our bills, own a home, know how to fight, know how to parent. Be encouraged. No things in our lives aren’t perfect, but with prayer, trusting in God and focus on him throughout your marriage and your family you will always be blessed. We know that God is the reason for all blessings in our lives. Our children, future grandchildren, our finances, and marriage. This doesn’t mean that you will get everything you want, of course, we don’t either. God has plans that many times we don’t understand and with some of those plans, we never will. There have been many times in my life that I’ve asked God “Why?” Not looking for an answer, but as a way of grieving something. I truly know it’s all for his good purpose. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is life is funny. You never know where it will take you. It took me from a young, immature woman meeting a young, immature guy (at a McDonalds drive thru) into a rich life (not finances) with a man I adore.

I believe the key to a happy life is God. We certainly were not focused on him for many years. Life is not always what we want it to be, we live in an imperfect world, but with God, he makes it bearable. I truly believe he gives us things in this life to help us get through those hard times. It might be different for each of us. It could be a person or it may be music or art for example. For me, it was the man I married. I couldn’t be more grateful to have Marcus in my life to be with me through all the celebrations and all the hard times. He’s what reminds me that God exists. If you haven’t found that person or that thing that helps you get through this crazy, funny life, be encouraged. Find God, and I truly believe he will give you that thing you need to support you or be there for your joys and sorrows. Blessings to you all.

Amy Blankenship

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