5 years!

December 23, 2005

Today I celebrate five years of marriage to my best friend.

It's not always been easy.

We've been through a LOT in our five short years.

An international move, a lot of time spent apart

(thanks to the Air Force),

the always-lingering-in-the-back-of-your-mind

worry about deployments.

Four pregnancies. Two angels in Heaven,

two difficult births on Earth.

2010 was the hardest yet. A hard pregnancy,

a very early arrival,

three months of spending 24/7 in the NICU,

a tough adjustment to being at home,

watching my sweet cousin Britni

go through Hadlei's homecoming to Heaven.

A marital separation.

LOTS of marriage counseling.

Even more time spent on our knees.

But -- I would not trade it for anything else.

He's the one for me, and I'm the one for Him.

(Mostly because no one else would put up with our faults!)

As I do every year, I've spent today thinking about what I was doing at this moment five years ago. I don't think I slept a wink the night before our wedding. My sisters spent the night with me at my mama's house, and my dad picked us all up, including my mama, and we went to eat at Huddle House at 5 a.m. for breakfast. For those of ya'll who know my daddy, know why we ate at Huddle House at 5 a.m. I haven't ate at HH at that time since. I have to say, I miss it sometimes! Then we headed over to a local salon to get prettied up for the big event.

My youngest sister snuck my veil on -- she was 12 then.

She's changed SO much!

Then we headed over to the church. If I could go back & redo my wedding, I'd pretty much do everything different. I'd DEFINITELY have a different hairstyle, a professional photographer, and more personal touches. But -- I was only 20, we had 6 weeks to put it together, & I was doing all of it with Michael in a different country than I was. AND I hadn't even met my in-laws at the time! And really, what is most important is that my family and friends were all there. My Daddy got to give me away while my mama sat on the front bench and cried. I married someone I loved more than anyone I had ever loved before. That's all that matters!

Michael watching me walk down the aisle.

Seeing Michael for the first time.

(My dad's totally thinking -- "Two down, two to go!"

Bless his heart -- he's still waiting on the last two and will likely be waiting a LOT longer;

they're only 19 & 17!)

Michael, congratulations on putting up with me for five whole years! :)

I love you now more than I did in 2005, even though I swore to you

that was impossible. Even though we've had our hard times,

if five years has brought us this much happiness --

well, I can't hardly wait to see what ten years brings.