celebrating ten years

 

oh my goodness. ten years of marriage. it has been the most rewarding and challenging and uplifting and tough and revealing and incredible years of my life. the honeymoon period. the newlywed bliss. the firsts. the moves. the career changes. the personal revelations. the hair styles. the highs and lows. the ebb and flow. death. life. trials and woes. tears of pain and happiness. date nights. travels. adventures. the new roles. the daily joys. we have been though so much already. and God uses it all for His glory and our good. there have been times that felt like magic, pure bliss. and there have been seasons of brokenness and hurt and pressure and turmoil. there have been easy times and difficult times. times when we have been at our very ugliest and times when we have been at our very best. and just when we think e've got it figured out or under control, life shifts. and we are learning new lessons and on our knees with new prayers.

praise God for the beauty of marriage. what a remarkable thing. and i pray that God uses our union to sharpen each other and encourage those around us. i don't know what the next ten years (and ten plus ten plus ten plus ten, et cetera) hold but i pray that no matter what, we continue to grow closer to God and to each other. that we pursue Him first and let everything else flow from that. i pray that we love sacrificially and immensely. that we strive to put each other's needs before our own. and that we can continue to find the magic in the mundane. that we laugh heartily and often. that we experience growing pains together and allow change to make us stronger. i hope that we always look for the good stuff. the simple pleasures. the exquisite moments of grace. that's the stuff. and there's always something for which to be grateful. God is good. always.

okay, okay, i will resist the urge to continue to gush and wax romantic. instead, i will share a bunch of pictures from an evening spent at our oasis - the site where we said I DO a decade ago and where we return for pretty much every major celebration, royal palms. collective sigh...

oh, and don't you love our FANTASTIC matching hawaiian ensembles? those are our super cool souvenirs that we snagged on our honeymoon in kauai. we looked like quite the pair... but i must say that it was fun to "dress up" and act like goofballs. here's to many more decades of shenanigans together.

and speaking of shenanigans, i did some snapchatting on our anniversary and posted the full story here, for those of you who aren't on snap and missed the behind the scenes action. enjoy!