Three Years

I have come to enjoy and appreciate anniversaries so much more than birthdays lately. Birthdays arrive and we turn another year older and it takes no work. They just show up. Anniversaries arrive too, but as I've talked to so many friends who are married and as I look at my own marriage, I realize that anniversaries are kind of "earned" in some way. Marriage is an amazing journey, full of ups and downs, but in order to make it work, it takes commitment and some hard work at times. Couples have to push through tough times to come out on the other side stronger, and I think that's something worth celebrating. Every time our anniversary rolls around I am reminded of the journey we have been on this past year, and I love looking back and celebrating the moments we didn't give up and the moments that were full of joy and the moments that drove us to our knees and the moments that we clung to each other because that's all it felt like we had. This past year was definitely the most difficult of our short marriage, and as we stand here today I look back at where we were a year ago on our anniversary. We had gone away to the Washington coast for 2 nights to try and escape a life that had come to feel so difficult and painful. Turns out, you can't really escape those things. We spent the weekend trying our hardest to put on our happy faces and enjoy each other, but in reality we were both so angry at the circumstance we'd found ourselves in with my husband's job. We would try and make a rule that we couldn't talk about the church but that pretty much left us with nothing, we were so consumed and hurt and frustrated that we didn't know what else to talk about. Here we are a year later and in such a different place in our marriage and family and work. I look back and I celebrate where God has brought us, how God has strengthened us, all the things God has taught us, and the amazing gifts God has given us.

I hear couples say they aren't doing anything to celebrate their wedding anniversary this year because "it's just another day," and that makes me so sad. Even if it's not elaborate, even if it's nothing spectacular, even if it's several days before or after your actual anniversary, take time to celebrate your marriage--you've worked for it, and in a culture where more and more couples are calling it quits, I think marriages are worth celebrating! My husband likes to say that our anniversary is the birthday of our family, and that today our family is 3 year's old. I think that's worth finding a baby sitter and making plans even though we're busy and we have other things we could be doing with our time. So this weekend that's what we're doing. We're setting aside time to go to dinner, and we're going to see the Hunger Games because I have been waiting for months for this movie to be released, and we're going to celebrate all that this past year has brought. Happy anniversary honey, I love our little 3 year old family!