It's Our Anniversary!

Another year has gone by and its our Anniversary again!  I know its the same picture that I post every year, but its a good one and I don't have a scanner to scan in a different one.  We look so young!

I have been thinking a lot about marriage lately.  It is so easy to look at a couple or a family and think they have the perfect marriage.  In reality though, there is nothing that is perfect this side of heaven.  Marriage in not easy and requires a lot of hard work, compromise, sacrifice, and a willingness to put somebody else's needs above your own.  Over the years of our marriage we have faced many big challenges: relocation (more than once), job loss, financial difficulties, family problems, medical problems, death of a loved one, legal challenges, and raising seven children!  In addition to those big challenges we face small ones everyday: disagreements, difference of opinion, hurt feelings, managing a household,  supporting a family, and many more.  When we got married, we stood before God and made a promise, not to stay married only when it is easy, but to be together until death parts us, and that is not a promise to be taken lightly. 

Even though there have been a lot of challenges, there have been so many wonderful things, and through each challenge that we have been through, our marriage has become even stronger.  While we certainly don't have a perfect marriage, we definitely have a great one.  When I walked down the aisle and pledged my love and married my husband, I never thought I could love him more than at that moment.  Little did I know that that love would grow and grow and I love him even more now than I did that day!  God has been go good to us to bless our marriage and our family!

Thank you honey for marrying me, sharing my life, being my best friend, giving me this beautiful family, supporting me, and being such a wonderful father and husband.  Happy Anniversary!