Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen years ago, at exactly 4:45 in the afternoon (when the sunlight was at peak sparkle through the stained glass window), I walked down the aisle to this man. And I have never looked back or second-guessed or doubted that it was a great choice. Because it was and still is.
Things haven't always been easy, but we didn't expect them to be a complete "slice of cake," as my daughter says. Sure, we weren't expecting to have lived in four different cities and eight different apartments or houses in that amount of time. We didn't expect to run into infertility struggles ... or that it would take us over six years to get pregnant. And we definitely didn't expect to lose my mother-in-law a few years ago.

Here's the thing. We could have let all of that break our marriage apart or weaken it. We could have let those hard times come between us. We could have become bitter and angry and selfish. But instead, we drew closer to each other, learning to lean on one another and God through the tough times, learning how to be the best spouse we could be (actually, we're probably still learning this because it's an ongoing process), and growing together in love and in faith.
So, yes. Sixteen years later, I still say "I do." And I will until one of us is called home to God.
And to celebrate, we're going on a real out-of-the-house, send the kids to our friends' house so we can have time with just us, date. Yeah. I'm pretty excited to celebrate this little milestone as well as however many more God grants us.