It all started here.  

Sept. 18, 1999

Well, not exactly...but it is where it really started.  Inside that church we said things like honor, obey, cherish, love.  Till death.

Then this...

March 7, 2003

and this...

February 22, 2006

and this...

February 5, 2010

And the love is there all along.  Only it's buried under thoughts like, "could you not have worn a nicer shirt to the birth of our daughter?  I mean, really..."

This September we will have been married for 13 years.  The past 9 years we've had company.
I find myself thinking about this more and more.  Let's be honest...marriage is hard to begin with, but take a marriage and add a child {or two or three} and it becomes a challenge.  {gasp!}  Yes, I said a challenge.

Now, I refuse to believe that we are any different than most couples.  We fight {verbally}, we hurt each other {emotionally}, we say things we don't mean, we harbor grudges, we're petty.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe we just have a bad marriage...but, I don't think so.

Our journies require a personal responsibility;  to ourselves, to each other, and to our children.  Our partners become a mirror of sorts, and sometimes what we see in the mirror isn't very pretty.

Our lives our busy.  We run constantly.  Our kids aren't perfect and neither are we.  We try and do the best we can.  Or do we?  I know I'm guilty of treating my friends and co-workers with more kindness and repect than I do my own family.  I speak more gently with strangers than I do to my own husband and children.  I'm quicker to forgive, slower to anger.  And, I know, this is not right.  I also know that I'm not alone, but that doesn't make it ok either...

It's not hard to remember the day I married Chris.  In fact, I can recall it quite well.  We had faith in our marriage.  We had hope for our marriage.  And, we had love.  Sometimes it's hard to keep the faith.  Sometimes the hope fades.  But the love is there...always there.


       "Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the grestest of these is love."
                                                                                                       1 Corinthians 13:13