Five Years!

Wow! Time certainly has flown! It's hard to believe that five years ago today, I married my best friend and soul mate. We had barely known each other for a year when we got married, and while we knew so many things about each other, we didn't really know each other. We were so in love and so excited about our future together.

The wonderful thing is that after five years of marriage, we are still so in love and so excited about our future together. The last five years haven't all been easy ones, but through everything, we have learned to work together and to support each other in ways we could never have imagined. James truly is everything I want and need in a husband and he is sweet enough to say I am the same thing as a wife for him.

Shortly after we were married, James read the text of a wedding sermon given by a Chinese evangelist by the name Watchman Nee. The part that really stood out to James was when Watchman Nee encouraged the newlywed couple to prepare for five years of suffering. So often we hear how hard the first year of marriage can be, but it was Watchman Nee's advice to buckle down for the long haul. And it was advice well taken in our situation as our first year of marriage was the smoothest year so far! We enjoyed the honeymoon stage of newlywed bliss to its fullest.

To make a long story short, our second year brought about quite a bit of transition as James graduated college and we moved back to Texas. The third year was extremely hard as we tried to figure out career paths and endured the hardships and stresses of trying to start our own business. The fourth year was also quite difficult as we continued our search for a career path for James and suffered through a long, difficult pregnancy. Our fifth year has had its own share of trials as we have worked split schedules to have someone home with Ian as much as possible, but it has also brought great joy at seeing Ian grow and finally getting a solid career path in place.

It has been interesting over the past few months as we have encountered similar situations we did during our third and fourth years of marriage and have seen how much we have grown in our ability to work together and not derail each other as we deal with the stresses of the unknown. It has really brought both of us a lot of satisfaction - and a lot of thankfulness! - to see how much better we handle situations that caused great stress just a couple of years ago.

I really am married to the most wonderful man in the world and am so thankful for all that he does for Ian and me!

Just for fun, since I am already going on a long blog post trip down memory lane, I thought I would include pictures of our previous anniversaries.

1st Anniversary: Hannibal, Missouri

Inside Jesse James' supposed hide-out.

On a short river cruise.

And, of course, the top layer of wedding cake! It actually tasted halfway decent after a year in the freezer!

2nd Anniversary: Colorado!

We went and stayed a few days with my grandparents in Colorado the week before our anniversary. We considered that fun trip our anniversary trip that year.

In Grandma Cookie and Grandpa Grape's front yard.

On top of one of the Rocky Mountains!

Another mountain picture.

3rd Anniversary, Part 1: Colorado!

That first week in August ended up being such a good time to visit my grandparents in Colorado that we went back at the same time a second year. Several family members were able to come and surprised us with an anniversary cake!



3rd Anniversary, Part 2: On the ranch!

When we got back from Colorado, we headed to a local ranch that also doubled as a B&B. We'd had a hard year and needed some time away. The place was great!

It was very quiet there that weekend. We ended up being the only guests and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Talk about romantic!

While out on the paddle boats, we saw a beautiful rainbow.

It was so nice and quiet out on those waters!

The ranch had these awesome porch swings all over the property.

We also got to go on our very own first horseback ride!

4th Anniversary: Olive Garden

Since we had a two and a half month old, we stayed nearby for our fourth anniversary. My mom was super sweet and watched him for us while we went out to eat at Olive Garden. She also took these family pictures for us at the gazebo right behind our apartment.

5th Anniversary: Dinner and a movie!

With Ian being a bit older, we actually went to dinner and a movie this year. Nana (my mom) and Pop-Pop (her sweetie) were sweethearts and watched Ian for us. Ian had a blast! He was soooo glad to see them and actually waved bye-bye to James and me. (Normally he waves bye-bye to whoever is watching him.)

More family pictures.



With Nana.

Nana and Pop-Pop...isn't this a sweet picture? :-)

For dinner, we went to a new place called Bella Italia. Let me just say this place was FANTASTIC! The food was great and definitely not too pricey at all. We will certainly be going back again!

James' meat lovers pizza.

My seafood linguine. I've never had seafood linguine (or seafood really) this good before!

Gary Freeman, the live musician for the evening. Since we had dinner before the movie, he arrived just as we were leaving. Otherwise, we probably would have stayed and slow danced to his great music.

We certainly have had some wonderful anniversary celebrations over the years and we are looking forward to many more to come! I really am amazed at how quickly the time has flown and so glad that I have someone so special to share it with!