6 Years

6 Years ago I married my best friend!  It was a day much anticipated by both of us.  We could not wait to be husband and wife!  We had spent the first 2 years of our relationship preparing to get us to that day and beyond.  We had no idea what the good and the bad the days ahead would hold, but we knew that no matter what, we wanted to face it together!

Here is a look back at the highlights of our last year of marriage!



        A 5 year anniversary trip to Disneyland (where I happened to be 5 weeks pregnant and was miserably sick.  Definitely a trip I won't forget!)

                                             Celebrating Malachi's 1st Gotcha Day in August!

                                                                  Lots of family time!

                                                              Another Precious Little Life!

                                                            A very special 1st Birthday!

                                                        And a very special 2nd Birthday!

                                                      And growing, growing, growing!!!

                                       A wonderfully, perfect birth experience of our baby GIRL!!!

I can't imagine facing this life without Peter by my side!  It has been an incredible first 6 years together and we have faced some bad days, but we've also faced more good days than I ever imagined we would!  Marriage has been fun!  It has been everything I dreamed it would be and more!  Peter and I have continued to grow closer and closer as the years have passed and I know 50 years from now, we will be better together than we are today!  I am so thankful to have someone by my side who shares in my values and my dreams.  His dreams have become mine, my hopes have becomes his!  We are best friends through and through!

This year has been yet another incredible year and in some ways, it feels so wonderful to get to celebrate today and say "we made it through year 5!"  Our marriage was blessed with our 3rd child this year, our first daughter!  In some aspects, I also feel like this has been the hardest year of marriage.  We had a stressful pregnancy with 7 weeks of bedrest where Peter had to do more than his fair share.  We've had to acclimate to yet another member in the family, which at times can put a strain on everyone in the family.  We've been more tired and more busy than ever before!  The kids take up every free moment and once they are in bed there are other chores to be done and we start counting the hours we have to catch some sleep before having to start the day all over again.  It doesn't leave much time to spend with one another!  This leads to not communicating, which can lead down the path to hurt feelings.  On the "life pyramid" it should be God, Spouse, Children, and then all of the other little things.  I think often this year children have gotten ahead of spouse, which is easy to have happen when we have so many young children in the home right now!

But we're figuring it out! Since things are starting to calm down in other areas of our life, we decided that it was time to really spend this year focusing on our marriage!  6 years into this, I would say we have a very solid and strong marriage.  But it could be better.  A few weeks ago we both decided to start brainstorming some areas we would like to work on in our marriage.  Today we shared those things with each other and plan on being very purposeful this next year to make our marriage great!

I cannot imagine my life without Peter by my side.  He is the best man I have ever known!  He leads me! He shows our children what a Godly man is.  He works very hard!  He is fun!  He enjoys the craziness that is our life! I love the passion that has ignited in him for the orphans in this world!  He is an incredible man and I am the luckiest woman alive that he asked me to walk through life with him!  So here we go, into another incredible and crazy year of marriage together.  I look forward to what is ahead for us.  I know this year holds a lot of good things and I also know that no matter what hard days may come (and unfortunately, I know there will be some) that I have the best partner at my side to face them!