All Because Two People Fell in Love

ByDeborah Raney
26 Comments

I’m updating a post from 11 years ago since my blogging day once again falls on the day of my wedding anniversary. This year is 51 for my wonderful groom and me, and this is what I wrote back in 2014 on our 40th:

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Today is my 40th wedding anniversary. (Not sure how that can be since I’m only 35, but it’s true.) And oh how quickly those four decades have flown! It seems like just yesterday I was that wide-eyed nineteen-year-old heading down the aisle on my father’s arm, wearing a dress my mom sewed—like she did all my clothes. At the end of that aisle was the man I loved more than life itself. I’m not sure Daddy would have let me go so easily if he’d known that man would haul me off to New York only four months later.

When you’re a Kansas farm girl, New York is like a foreign country. But the two years we lived there were some of the best times of our life together. We had each other and the Lord. Not two dimes to rub together, and no mamas nearby to run home to. We had to figure it out for ourselves. And we did.

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Oh, if we could have seen glimpses of the joys to come. But then, we would have also seen glimpses of the hard times. Ken always jokes that we’ve been happily married for thirty-fill-in-the-blank however long we’ve been married minus two years. It’s not that we had a bad run there, but we figure the bad days—or weeks—probably add up to somewhere close to two years in total. And they’re mostly forgotten now. We’re in a good time these days. A time when God has taught us that the little stuff doesn’t matter…and it’s all little stuff.

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Ken’s grandparents on their 75th anniversary. They celebrated six more before Grandma died, just 18 days before their 82nd anniversary. Grandpa followed her Home four months later.

Forty years seems like for-ev-er. But we have a history, a wonderful legacy of long (really long) happy marriages. Between both of our parents and four sets of grandparents, the anniversaries add up to well over 300 years! That’s a lot of till-death-do-us-part. We want to be counted in that amazing legacy. And we figure if we’re stuck with each other for almost 82 years the way Ken’s grandparents were, we might as well enjoy it! Shoot, if we match their record, we’re not even halfway there yet!

Happy anniversary, babe! Here’s to the next 40!

 

And the best part? What happens forty years after two people fall in love. . .

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Here is a 2025 update: I would marry this man 100 times over again! There are 24 of us now when we all get together! God has blessed us with 14 grandkids ranging from almost 1 to almost 20! Every single one of them is a joy and delight.

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DEBORAH RANEY's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a four-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

26 Comments

  1. What a beautiful love story. You are so blessed. Coming from a more than one time married women I love reading your books and your personal posts on Facebook.

  2. Happy Anniversary!
    May you be blessed with many more.
    We just celebrated our 42nd and each year just getting better than the one before it.

  3. Happy happy anniversary to one of our favorite couples!! So very glad K.W. dragged you to New York and you came to the Tallman Bible Church! We now have been blessed with being friends for these 51 years! Love you lots!! Xoxo

  4. Congratulations! 51:years that I know went by in the blink of an eye. May you both be blessed today and always with more love, more wisdom, more fun!, and an even closer walk with Jesus.

  5. Congratulations to you both on 51! We had a similar stories except I was 21 and hub still had three years left of Pharmacy School. Though we barely had enough to scrape by we had no worries that LOVE couldn’t cover. Our 40 year old self would have been far more stressed in our early 20’s. But God provided our needs and a wonderful farmer we met at our new church in Chapel Hill who shared foods from his bounty. He named one of his cows after me and who knew 30+ years later I would be the CFA COW at the mall. God has a sense of humor. And I came to faith at that church. What a bountiful family you have of which I’m envious. Blessed to know you both though at a distance mostly. Hope we meet in person again in 2026.

  6. Thanks so much for this post and the reminder of your sustaining love for now 51 years! Happy anniversary and many more. I love seeing the updated photo.

    I married my husband a month before I was 20. He was a Marine, whom I met on a blind date in the last few weeks of my second year of college. We were married at the end of that summer, and he went off to Vietnam in March. We had many wonderful adventures in our 57 years of marriage before God called him home in January, 2023. By the way, his last career was as a Methodist pastor, completing Duke Seminary at the age of 60. We were blessed with two children and two grandchildren. Just yesterday I had an emotional conversation with my granddaughter, who heads off to her first year of college next weekend. She has grieved him so deeply, and I wanted her to focus on the wonderful memories and remember she will see him again. Thanks always for your uplifting messages.

    1. What a wonderful legacy, Betty! And such a sweet conversation with your granddaughter. She is blessed to have you (and I know you feel the same about her!)

  10. Happy Anniversary – Deb and Ken! I loved seeing the photos of the family. You’ve been a great example. Thanks for sharing some of the journey with us!

  11. Ok, I am going to have to say it!! Married at 19 for 21 years makes you 70 years old. No way do you look like that is possible. Those wonderful years, even with some not so great, sure show in your beautiful face. And Ken doesn’t look old enough, either. Congratulations on your 51 years. What a blessing. And thank you for all of your books, your Facebook posts (that I always look for) and your blogs. They cheer me up.

    1. Oh, you are so sweet, Ann. Your comments made my day! (And yep, I turned 70 in May. Hard to believe! It feels younger than I thought it would when I was 40. 🙂 )

  12. Happy Anniversary, Deb! And what a great photo of the entire gang. In this day and age longevity in marriage is not all that common. You “kids” are a wonderful example of faith and perseverance!

    1. Bless you, Lynne. And yes, I give much credit to our grandparents and parents who all modeled long, wonderful marriages for us. We want to do the same for our kids and grandkids.

  13. Aww, such a sweet happily ever after and a beautiful legacy of love to pass on to your children and grandchildren. BTW, very impressive that everyone, including all the kiddos, are smiling with their eyes open in that last photo.

    1. Haha! I don’t even think we had to Photoshop anyone in for that, Kelly, but we did take about 50 shots. 🙂 And there were a few cheesy smiles in exchange for open eyes. Haha!

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