Eleven years ago I married this handsome man...
My little sister is getting married in October so our family is right in the middle of wedding bliss and it is F.U.N.! It reminds me of planning my wedding and all of the excitement that comes with it.
Like many girls I had my wedding planned for years before I found my Prince. I knew exactly what I wanted, red roses, star gazer lillys, big long (little did I know it would weight 10 lbs and my calves would hurt for days) train on a frilly white wedding dress, lots of candles, a very traditional ceremony...the list goes on and on. "My" day was perfect, just as I had always planned. I will never forget the way I felt that night when the doors to the church opened and he was waiting for me at the end of the aisle...Everything else just stopped and it was just "us".
Life has changed in 11 years. We created four amazing and beautiful babies who each have the best parts of us intertwined in their being. It is no longer "us" but more, more love, more hugs, more kisses....just more of everything wonderful.
Oh, but don't get me wrong, we are not perfect. My insanely need to start a new project without much notice annoys him and the way he leaves his shoes all over the house makes me nuts or the fact that I always don't fill up with gas until the gas light comes on (and that ALWAYS seems to happen when we are running late to be somewhere) or how he he will take clothes out of the dryer but not put the ones from the washer into the dryer drive me right over the edge.
But at the end of a long day when we have been up since 5 am, made lunches, changed diapers, got kids off to school, taken kids to doctors appointments or sports practice or friends houses, did laundry, helped with homework, found a missing shoe, broken up a fight, read "just 1 more" book out loud, given medicine and breathing treatments, swept the floor, beamed at an A on a paper or was disappointed in a choice that one of the kids made their is still Love.
One of my favorite passages from the bible is from Corinthians. This was read at our wedding 11 years ago...
1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Do you remember when I won RVA contest for Richmond Mom of the Year? If not, you can check it all out right
here... my gift certificate included an overnight stay at the Omni Richmond and dinner and breakfast..We had a wonderful and relaxing time and pigged out! Here is what we ate for dinner.
Appetizer - Virginia Crab and Artichoke Dip
Entree - 14 oz bone in fillet, wrapped in prosciutto and smothered in Gorgonzola fondue
Dessert - Bread Pudding
Happy 11th Anniversary to my wonderful husband ...
