Tears of Joy

Well guys, the big one year anniversary officially came and went without a lot of hoopla or fanfare. I had expected lots of joyous, silly celebrating, but we had none of that.

And you know what? I’m perfectly fine with that.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re still going to celebrate again on Saturday in a combined celebration for my birthday and some other stuff.

We had some personal things that kept us from celebrating the way we would have preferred last night so we just decided to go out to a relaxing dinner, something fun and casual, and then save the real “special” stuff until the weekend.

(Although eating out on a Monday certainly is special on our budget!)

So on the one year anniversary of the day we got all dressed up and fancy and said our vows, we both went to work (or worked from the couch, in my case) and then some pretty awesome burgers that I tried to share with you via photo, but my phone internet isn’t cooperating so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

And then we went home.

We were full. We were tired. We decided to take a short nap before dessert.

Spoiler alert: We never made it to dessert.

We were both so tired that we ended up sleeping longer than we’d planned, and by the time we got up, we were still feeling full and weren’t in the mood for any more celebrating.

I’ll admit it, I was bummed.

I felt we’d wasted our anniversary. It was the only first anniversary we’ll get and we’d slept part of it away!

But then, as Hubs hugged me and I could see the hurt in his eyes because he thought he’d let me down, I realized it didn’t matter at all how or when we celebrated. Having each other for a whole year already and a lifetime to come is what we should be celebrating every day, not just today. That’s where the joy should be coming from. Not from a fancy dress or an expensive dinner…

So I cried a little bit and apologized. I hadn’t meant to make him feel bad. What a humbling blessing to be able to ask for forgiveness from the one I love on the day we celebrate the promises that we made to always fight fair and seek out resolution to our conflicts and struggles.

And then we settled into the couch to read our “Love Story” book that we started on our wedding day.

Putting the photos of our parents and grandparents on their wedding days into our love story book.

And we looked though our photo album. And we both got a little emotional as we relived those memories.

Such a special moment I never want to forget.

And then, you know what we did?

We read our promises to each other.

Wyatt reading his promises to me. I’m crying here. He is, too.

The ones we read during our wedding after we recited our vows. The ones that made pretty much the entire church cry, including ourselves, with how sweet and personal and perfect for us that they were.

My turn with this very emotional task of reading our personalized promises to each other.

And you know what?

We both cried again. More than a few tears on our cheeks. In fact, there were several, many even, tears running down our cheeks as we relived how passionate we were as we wrote and recited those words to each other last year and remembered just how much love and devotion and history and hope those words carried for us then, and how much they still mean to us know.

And you know what else?

It was exactly what I would have wanted our “actual” anniversary to be. It was real. It was honest. It was tender and sweet and private. We’ll save the silly celebrations for later. Those special moments were all about taking time to quietly reflect on just how amazingly blessed we are to call each other best friends…lovers… teammates… family…husband and wife.

And that was all the joy I could have ever dreamed of wanting for such a very special day.

 

Friday’s Food for Thought: Love in a Tutu

Husbands and wives share a special bond and usually that special bond includes inside jokes and secret little ways to cheer each other up and make each other smile. If the face of wife Linda Carey’s battle with breast cancer, Bob Carey is bringing those special little moments from their private lives to the rest of the world in a very vulnerable, yet comical way.

It’s clear the dedication and love he has for his wife. It’s clear the good they’re trying to accomplish in the lives of others battling this disease. It’s clear that they’re story is special. In fact, it’s so special, it’s now a full on movement to try to raise money in the fight to find a cure.

Bob writes on his website, “During these past nine years, I’ve been in awe of her power, her beauty, and her spirit. Oddly enough, her cancer has taught us that life is good, dealing with it can be hard, and sometimes the very best thing—no, the only thing—we can do to face another day is to laugh at ourselves, and share a laugh with others.”

Here’s the Today show interview. Check it out. Try not to feel a little bit better after watching this. I dare you.

The Tutu Project

 It begs the question of what we would be willing to do for our spouse if they were ever in need of just something small to make them smile…or in need of something bigger. Something to save their life.

Rock on, Tutu Man. Thanks for showing us all a little bit of the love you have for your dear wife.

Inspiration from Psalm 145

Last night before bed I had some time alone in the bed while Wyatt was finishing up playing his new game (see my tweets from yesterday for more on that…) and while I was reading, I came across Psalm 145 and a devotional that went along with it in my bible. The main purpose of the little devotional was to present the idea that we don’t brag about what God has done for us the way we brag about what our family and friends, or even what we accomplish. But the words that really struck me were this:

“It’s easy to complain about inefficient checkout clerks, dangerous drivers and ungrateful relatives. It’s natural to tell our stories of financial hardship and illness and slights from friends. It’s great to have funny stories to tell about what has happened to us. But it’s so much sweeter and deeper to bless others with stories about the good things, the true things, the beautiful and enduring things we’ve experienced with God.”

So, I have to be honest and admit that this convicted me a bit. I don’t always tell you guys the way I’m blessed by my Heavenly Father. A few weeks ago, I began this page of blessings and happy things. It’s a start to sharing my joy, but I could do more.

So here’s the plan, I’ll start with sharing my thoughts from last week. And I’ll work on adding more of these “God moments” with you guys in the future. I’m not going to stop laughing at myself (and the thing Hubs says in his sleep) or worrying about getting lost in the city or eaten by a spider in our apartment, but I am going to do better about sharing my everyday blessings with you guys.

You know why? Well, that leads me right back to last night.

“One generation will commend your works to another…” (Psalm 145:4)

It’s so important to me to be a godly example to my future children. Hubs and I were both blessed with godly families that taught us to love and trust in a Father who was stronger and bigger than we could imagine. And we were blessed with parents, grandparents, and families that truly love each other, which of course, is because they know the source of true love, the One who wrote the book on love. Yes, we come from different denominations (He’s Catholic, I’m Baptist) but we have a heart for a having a Godly family. I want to show this newlywed blog to my kids someday (I hadn’t planned on it, but I decided recently) because I want them to know our story. I think it’s so important for kids to see their parents as a couple that’s in love instead of just “mom and dad.” I want them to know how hard we work on our relationship. I want to teach them to be thankful for love and to value it the way God does.

“…the Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.” (verse 13)

Yes, I don’t have a job. Yes, Wyatt and I sometimes fight and we have issues I doubt we’ll ever fully learn to get around, yes, we don’t have a house yet, or newer, nicer cars…but you know what we do have? The faith that God is sovereign and in control. He promises to take care of his children. And since we fall into that category, we’re good to go.

Ok, so maybe it isn’t as simple as all that.

Or maybe it is. We might think things are more complicated when we’re paying bills and trying to plan for the future, but sometimes it helps to just sit back and trust in the simplicity of the fact that He is in control.

Sounds like a plan to me.