April 15th is an easy day to remember. Not because of taxes (I like to get ours done in February, if possible) - but because it's our anniversary! People sometimes ask if we chose that day so it would be easy to remember. No, it was simply the best date available in the small window we had to choose from - we did not want a long engagement. (And it's my mom and grandfather's birthday. Big day, I know.)
This is our 5 year anniversary! It's hard to believe that. I feel like this is a very cliche thing to say, but it's amazing how time does seem to go faster the older you get. I feel like the past 5 years have absolutely flown. I'll be honest and say I'm not usually a big fan of relationships that constantly express their love and affection for each other all over facebook, etc., but I think a 5-year anniversary is a special occasion, right?
Life is just fun when you get to live it with your best friend. Marriage is by no means a fairytale or what they portray in the movies, but honestly, it's better. It's better because it's real. Josh and I are constantly working through what it means to keep Christ the center of our marriage, what it means to lead, to submit, to communicate, and what it means to love each other more than we love ourselves. And I think it's this process that makes you more "one." Josh really is my best friend. I love how much he makes me laugh. I love how he listens to me all the time. Words are definitely my love language and he's so good at loving me the way I receive it best. I love that I would rather be doing absolutely nothing with him than doing anything else.
I was starting to pack a couple weeks ago (which makes me sad and excited at the same time), and I came across our wedding vows. I pulled them out this morning to read when I was spending time with the Lord. What a sweet memory and a wonderful challenge. I thought about posting part of our vows on here, but I've already gone a little overboard on the "cheese" department, so I'll just cherish those with Josh today.
For a continued walk down memory lane, I thought I'd post a collage of wedding pictures. Hope you enjoy. This seriously was the most fun day - I love every memory I have of it!
Of course, I can't finish this post without giving a shout-out to my mom. It's her 59th birthday today! If you could see her right now, you would NEVER believe she's 59 years old. She not only looks incredible, she also has more energy than I've ever had. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Thanks for continually showing us what it means to put people before yourself (perfect example, letting me get married on your birthday.) Love you so much and so thankful to share this special day with you. Had to end with an oldie, but goodie of me and my mom...
So, you want to know when I actually created this blog? Pretty sure it was over 2 years ago. You want to know why I never launched it? I'd like to say it's because I have been busy or because we were serving on mission trips in remote parts of the world without access to the internet, but that would simply not be true. It's because I'm a perfectionist. Yep, if you know me well, you already knew the answer (and were probably slightly annoyed by it.) I wanted our blog to have just the right fonts, a cute header, other blogs to follow, interesting posts...you get the idea. Well, I'm getting over that and just joining the blogging world, perfect or not (clearly, the latter.)
It's amazing how your greatest strengths almost always serve as your greatest weaknesses too. Sometimes my perfectionism is a wonderful thing, other times it's a hindrance. I don't think my family will ever fully believe me when I say this (because they knew me in my much more anal and obsessive years), but I really feel like the Lord has given me so much freedom in this area. Yes, it's an area that He is continually sanctifying me in, but it encourages me that He loves me enough to not leave me where He found me.
So all that to say, I'm joining the blogging world. I hope that my content is interesting (especially since we have so many big transitions and changes happening soon), but the bottom line is - I'm blogging because I think it will be a great way to keep our friends and family updated and to journal our day-to-day lives. Hopefully these posts will serve as reminders of great memories as we grow old together. I know I will fail at times keeping up with this on a super regular basis, but my husband is always telling me that I need to learn how to fail. So here's to not being perfect and to knowing it's okay to fail sometimes! (oh and to blogging)
Hope you'll follow me and visit regularly (and maybe even add me to your blog roll - WHOA, bold request I know. Just think about it.) I hope to make a post with pictures tomorrow (just trying to entice you to come back, in case you didn't catch that) seeing as it's a pretty important day. Sorry, I can't give it away yet.
