To my hubby that is! Friday (yes, last Friday on the 13th – it’s a good day for us!) we celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary! I can’t believe we’ve been married 10 years – we’ve actually been together for 15 years so I have officially been with my hubby for more than half my lifetime (yes, we started dating when I was young, our love story is truly a long one which is a completely different snack in itself :-)

We have been through so many stresses in our relationship and marriage – too many to write about but let me just say that God was with us the entire way! In fact, there were times when we weren’t faithful followers (we have always been believers, but not as faithful with God has He always has been with us) and God never let go of us for one second, I’m 110% sure of it! So, in our 10 years of wedded bliss (hehe), these are our top 10 highlights:

1. Blessed with our first son, T.
2. Moved away from our hometown to a new city when we really became “us.”
3. Blessed with our second son, Caleb.
4. Moved from that city to another city where we now consider our home.
5. Found and blessed to have an amazing church family (I had to include this one because it’s so important and means so much to us)!
6. We both made changes to work for other companies.
7. Dealt with the pain and heartache of losing my Dad ^[1].
8. I resigned from my career and became the super-duper wife and mom I am today :-)
9. Blessed with our third son, Andon.
10. Managed a surgery and recovery with Andon’s kidney issues ^[2].

And, here’s another thing I’ll share – from moving to our home now (#4) to losing my Dad (#7), it was the the most stressful time in our marriage (besides Andon’s health stuff)! We had these stressors we waded through all at once: selling a home, building a home, T was hospitalized, those company changes (and I was working on an acquisition project at work which is extremely crazy), living with friends during the building process (love my BFF still) and losing my dad. That all happened in the course of 5 months and we came through it loving each other more and drawing closer to God!

Some people wonder how going through storms can strengthen your relationship, but I truly believe that our marriage is stronger and we have both grown so much closer with all of the things I listed above (and a few others that I don’t have listed). I can’t express enough to people how having God in your life and on your side during change and storms helps, it truly does.

My BFF and I are currently taking a Beth Moore bible study and Beth shared an amazing understanding of Psalm 127 and how storms bring joy, to paraphrase the statement: Tears are the water the seed needs to harvest the joy in your life. This is so true because there have been many tears through our 10 years, and the Lord has blessed us with what we feel is a bountiful harvest! For us, we believe the harvest He has given us here on Earth are plentiful and will continue to provide joy as long as we follow Him!

So, that was then…

This is now…

Going to dinner at Jag’s ^[3] to celebrate (nope – it wasn’t frugal but it was soooo good!)

I can’t help but say, I know this is cheesy and all my good friends know that I’m not sappy and cheesy, but it’s been 10 years and I just got to document it for him to know how I luv him so much! I love ya babe :-) You are an amazing husband, daddy, and friend and I’m looking forward to the future with you by my side! Always :-)

As it was in the beginning from now until the end, there is love…