one dozen years…

 on may 22, 2011 we celebrated our 12 year anniversary…

a dozen years together.

in the beginning we were young…

happy and head over heals in love.

as the years passed our commitment to our marriage grew as we began the journey of learning to live out galatians 5… verses just a few years ealrier seemed full of impossibilities.  our first 5 years of marriage were crazy busy as jarod earned his stripes, supported and paid for my college education and we began a journey, one that years later we realized was a call to sacrificial obedience.  the second 5 years began with great excitement as we embarked on a great adventure… which ultimately sent us 1/2 way around the world.  and it was there that our faith and our commitment became an active and integral part of who we were… not just individually, but together.  it was also during this time that we learned how to love each other more intentionally…  and our friendship deepened.

during our year in the states jarod blessed me with a “dream vacation” to estes park which allowed us to renew our vows and celebrate all God had accomplished in and through our marriage.  i was honored that he worked so hard to make this dream a reality and so grateful for this moment in time that was set aside so that i could speak from my heart and renew my vows to him… though the vows i said were similar to the ones at our wedding, the first time they were more “theory and ideals” while this time, 11 years later, my vows were based in experience and gratitude.  jarod, being true to his fun-loving self quoted dr. seuss vows.  i loved that on our special day we were able to celebrate with tears all the Lord has done for us as well as laugh at all the sweet and silly memories we’ve been able to make together.

in mid-march we had our family portraits taken… and once again we realized we have many, many reasons to celebrate.  not least of which is our love for each other… and our precious sprouts.

so as we celebrate a dozen years together i also celebrate the Lord’s goodness… that through each year, through every illness and every tear, through our many transitions and every prayer said and answered, he has protected, kept and sustained us.

for this special occasion i made arrangements with some dear friends to watch our sprouts for 4 glorious hours so that we could celebrate our special anniversary with a date.  and wouldn’t you know it… we didn’t really go anywhere extra special or do anything extra exciting… but we sure did enjoy spending time together – just the 2 of us – once again.

jarod, on the other hand, had thought enough in advance to have some visiting friends bring this sweet charm over.  so, as we were on our date and enjoying the special treat of steamed milk (for me) and a mocha latte (for him) i couldn’t help but think how appropriate this charm is… for it no doubt represents our sprouts 🙂 but to me it is also symbolic of how we’ve grown up together.

thank you jarod for loving me so well all these years.

here’s to dozens more…

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