anniversary

We're 8 Years In... | Personal

We're 8 Years In... | Personal

We observe weddings all the time. We hear countless vows, sermons, and charges. Scripture is read, prayers are prayed, and in the middle of taking pictures and finding the best angles, the words don’t always soak in as I listen to the wedding ceremony.

One wedding this year hit us both in particular. The preacher said the following: “Men get married wanting their wives never to change, and women get married wanting their husbands to change almost everything.” When he said that, Nathan and I both shared a glance. We had both heard that wives often want their husbands to change, but had never thought of the flipside to that scenario…

The Life I Never Expected (Happy 7th Anniversary) | Personal

The Life I Never Expected (Happy 7th Anniversary) | Personal

As I sit on the edge of celebrating 7 years being married to Nathan, I can't help but think back to the moment I knew he was the one for me. Not everyone has a singular moment and I certainly didn't expect to, but it happened anyway and it's one I'll never forget. We had been dating for about 8 months when my birthday came, and he made the day incredibly special from the moment I woke up. The last thing he gave me, though, was a file on his computer.

The file was, in short, everything he knew and loved about me and all that had happened in our relationship thus far. It was a recording of my likes and dislikes, my favorite things, the memories we had shared, and pictures of us together. It was a time capsule of the last 8 months and while the fact that it existed was amazing, what really blew me away was...

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! | Monday Musings

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! | Monday Musings

Since I'm posting this on a Monday, yesterday was my parents' real anniversary...but today I'm celebrating on the blog :) My parents were married 33 years ago on a cold day in New York. Over three decades later there are four adults and four grandchildren now living their lives because of it. Their wedding day was the start of a marriage that has brought them through years of ups and downs and weathered the storm in a beautiful way.

The closest you will ever get to seeing a marriage besides your own is probably in your parents. Through the years spent at home, and now living a little ways away, I have learned countless lessons from watching mom and dad love each other. By way of the marriage vows I shared with Nathan, and those that my parents spoke so many years ago, here are just a few things I know because of watching them together...