Eight Years

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary!

THEN...

and NOW...

A lot has changed since June 10, 2006!  For one thing, Josh said that "WE" were a lot skinnier back then (Yeah, he said "WE" when he looked at a picture of the two of us his mom had from before we got married...  Gee, thanks hon!)  But true it is...  And for another, I couldn't even find a picture of just the two of us from any time recently.  Any picture nowadays of the two of us has two other little people in it too!  :)  Wouldn't trade it though!

These eight years have definitely not been perfect.  We've had the "for better" and the "for worse" moments for sure.  God is GOOD, and He has carried us through them all.  I don't want to take one day for granted.

Grady and I were out eating lunch the other day when a young girl, her mom, and her friend got in line to order behind us.  The whole time we were in line, the girl and her mom were arguing over wedding details...how she looked in the outfit she'd just tried on for her engagement pictures (I looked GOOD...NO, that dress was too tight...NO, if it zips, it fits!!!), where the engagement pictures should be taken, what time the engagement pictures should be taken...and on and on.  The line we were waiting in was LONG and Grady and I got an earful.  Then when we placed our order and went to sit down, we were so blessed that this lovely group decided to sit right next to us!  So our entire meal was consumed with more and more wedding talk... er, wedding arguments.  Whether to have an October wedding so that they could do it sooner and have it on a Sunday, or wait until January so that a Saturday would be available...  wear a strapless dress or not... bridesmaids hair being up or down?.....  how UGLY so-and-so's wedding reception site had been last month....  and can you BELIEVE her cake????.....  and on and on and on...

As our pastor at church has been doing a study on relationships in the book of Ruth, Josh and I were talking about the sermon on Sunday and I told him about this girl, her mom, and her friend and their conversation Grady and I were thrilled to listen to...ha.  I told him how super close I was (well not really...but WANTED TO) go over to her table and just put my hand on her arm and tell her to slow down and breathe.  Your wedding is just one day.  One day that SO much planning goes in to (and don't get me wrong...I am SURE I was the same way to an extent) but then in a few hours, it's all over and real life sets in.  It's not worth arguing over.  And marriage is hard.  Really hard.  So is life.  Even if someone would have told me to slow down and just breathe when I was in this girl's shoes, I probably wouldn't have understood or listened to them.  No one at that point in their life realizes that it's going to be hard and not a fairy tale.   It's funny how it's so easy to see NOW that what mattered so much back then DOESN'T matter all that much now at all.  Maybe it's just what growing up does to you.

Oh well...anyway...  sorry for writing a book today!  The point is, I am happy to celebrate 8 years!  And I hope to celebrate so many more!  When I got married, I guess I probably thought at that time, that it was the happiest day of my life...  If you could only look into the future and see that it just gets better!  :) Yeah, there will be plenty of ups and downs, but marriage is supposed to get better with time.  At least, that's how I think God intends for it to be!  And I'm thankful that that's the story of my marriage.

So...cheesily....
JOSH,

"I love you more today than yesterday...

but not as much as tomorrow..."

love,

J.