This month I have seen LOTS of friends posting wedding photos celebrating their anniversary. The perfect wedding day, wedding smile, the thinner her and toner him. Pictures that include parents, grandparents or that special family friend that helped make you who you are. Some of them gone but most of them just older and none of them ever forgotten.
But this life I made with Phil is not about the wedding day bliss. It is about the choice we made to love and cherish this life together no matter what...........
No matter what..........Did no matter what include waiting for me to finish college before we started a family? the craziness that includes step parents, step brothers and sisters, half brothers and sisters? Job loss? Economy crash? Fatal accidents? Burying someone way too soon? Birth defects? surrendering your children to surgeons 4 times? Three children under the age at 5?? The ultimate answer is yes!! All of this and more, our list would scare you into tears.
These are the things that have truly tested the vows we took and made us who we are today. Everyday life is hard. Sometimes we get really angry, sad or we need to cry. Sometimes the anger, sadness or tears came from the one we promised to love forever. Thankfully our parents and siblings who look a little older than they did 16 years ago have stood the test of time with us. Our glorious friends who have been there since the beginning or joined us along the way; we would not have been able to do this without you.
Right now we are in the thick of it. We have a middle-school-er, 5th grader and a 2nd grader. Life is going to get much more complicated before it gets simpler again. All three of them play soccer and our oldest made a Classic Travel team (an amazing feat for an 11 year old). Our son also plays basketball. We spend a record number of hours on the soccer field and basketball court. I know in the back of my mind one day I will miss all of this.
That wedding photos you see of us looking younger, thinner, and grinning from ear to ear was only the beginning. A photo of us smiling today means that we were able to shower, find a brush, clean clothes and threaten the kids to turn that best smile on just long enough for the camera shutter to capture it. It means we made it this far and we will Keep Moving Forward!
Pictures are just that one beautiful, ugly, scary or funny moment in life that we were able to capture the millisecond it occurred and nothing more. As we continue to live the vow we took 16 years ago, we will look past the milliseconds that have occurred and do our best to savor the moments to come. Today we send a heart felt thank you to those that have traveled this journey with us. For those that came along before this adventure began we thank you for preparing us to start the journey. We are so glad to have crossed paths with you along the way.
Most importantly to Pilbert.......When you think about how life started before we met most would have never believed we ever crossed paths. Thank you for melting on our wedding day so I could be married in the same church my parents were married in. Thank you for always holding me up every time we surrendered a child to a surgeon. Thank you on those really dark days we thought Madelynn might not make it for being my light. Thank you for always helping me find joy in the chaos. Thank you for always making me laugh even when I didn't want to.
Happy Anniversary!! I love you most!
TTFN~
