Happy Anniversary To Us

Five years has come & gone for us and it's really kind of hard to believe. When I think back to how long high school & my first year of college seemed, I can hardly believe that we've been married for that same amount of time. I guess what everyone says is true. Time goes faster with age.

It seems we've experienced a lot in the last 5 years, but probably no more than what most married couples face. We've had good days & bad days, laughter & tears, joy & pain, good health & bad; the roller coaster of life has taken us many places. Ecclesiastes 3 comes more to life because we've gone through many of those seasons of life as a married couple, some more literally than others.

2010 - Our wedding was January 3rd & we flew to Jamaica the following day for our honeymoon. We got back on Sunday night and bright & early the next morning I went back to school. College life & marriage did not blend well for me, so in December we decided that chapter of life should close. That year was probably the most stressful year of our marriage & I can easily say I'm happy it's in the past. By the end of 2010 I knew how to run a household & be a wife, but there were bumps & scrapes along the way.

2011 - I settled into an adult routine. In February I got a job & went to work 5 days a week just like Ryan. It turned out, my one semester of nursing school proved to be useful. I don't think I would have been chosen to be Ruthann's caretaker without a little medical knowledge.  Life was maybe a little too easy because Satan came barging into our life that year & we got to deal with some really tough stuff. He was ready to tear our lives apart & we had two choices. We could let him win or we could pull together as a three-fold cord and make our marriage stronger. Thankfully, Job 23:10 applied to us.  "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold."

2012 - Ryan's life, so far, had pretty much stayed the same. He was working in Auburn at Classic City Signs & loved to come home and work on projects with or without his dad. Ryan's chronic heart burn brought occasional bad days but overall was manageable. I once again changed paths & got a new job at BKM. This may have been the best year out of 5 for us. We had lots of fun with friends & family and got pregnant with Leo in July.  Thankfully, pregnancy went well for me and the year closed with much laughter & joy.

2013 - Leo joined our family in May & we got to adjust to being parents. We truly adored our little boy, but those first few weeks & months were a bit rough. We were used to flying free and doing whatever we wanted. Leo tied us down a little and that was an adjustment. The really awesome thing about being parents though was the new love we experienced. Never before had we loved someone like we loved Leo. It made God' love for us more understandable and his sacrifice more meaningful. Ryan's job started slowing down at CCS. They didn't have a great year and so they started cutting Ryan's hours.

2014 - I worked at BKM part time and Ryan's hours kept getting cut.  He started seriously looking for a new job. They say stress can affect health & I readily agree.  Ryan's heartburn was worse than any other year. His extra time filled up quickly with outside projects, but he was ready to move on in his career path. We fell in love with Leo more every day & decided to try for baby #2. Pregnancy was once again good to me. The waiting game finally ended in November when Ryan started working at Star Engineering. He went from driving about 2 hours every day to 8 minutes. Since his new job, Ryan hasn't had any serious heartburn problems! God's provision was, is and always will be amazing to us!

We have no clue what the next 5 years will bring, but I'm excited to see that recap in 2020!

Five years ago at this time we were headed for our honeymoon not knowing each other that well!  Three days ago, on our anniversary, we enjoyed a fun & relaxing evening at Outback, Target, Glenbrook & DQ!