six word love story

I saw this idea on The Lettered Cottage.  Such a cute idea.  Can you sum up your love story in six words?  Here is ours. 

Internet Romance.

It Worked!
Forever Love.

9 years ago

9 years ago I woke up from my last night of singleness.

In my journal I wrote:

"It is here!  Today I will be a bride - and I will walk down the aisle and share vows with Paul.  I am so excited and my heart is bursting as I write this.  Praise Jesus for the joy in my heart right now.  I can't even comprehend the enormity of this great covenant - yet my hope and trust are in the Lord who has brought me this far" 

My freshman year of college I gave up dating for lent.  Yes...I was a bit boy crazy and it was a perfectly legitimate sacrifice.  :)  One that ended up changing my life in a significant way.  As I offered that sacrifice to the Lord, I felt Him urging me to make a 3 year commitment to Him.  To give up dating for 3 years.  That same week, in my secular college bookstore, I stumbled upon this newly released book and about had a heart attack.  It was God's gift to me.

The next man I fell in love with was my husband, 5 years later. 

Those 5 years were my gift to God and to my future husband.  In the same way, my husband committed his heart to me years before we met.  God did write our love story.  What a glorious day!

I will save more wedding day reflections for anniversary #10.  At the prompting of Betty Beguiles I am going to share a bit about our honeymoon.

We choose Banff, Canada.  We had Canada in mind and one our my bridesmaids had chosen that as their location, two months before us.  We followed their recommendation.  It was gorgeous!   Hiking, horseback riding, views, glaciers.

And apart from the silly stories for our private memoirs....here are a few moments we will never forget:
- Our first night I wanted to start a fire in our fireplace at the hotel while my hubby was downstairs picking up a pizza. He came up and in the room as smoke was billowing out and our smoke detector was going off. I had forgotten to open the flue. Thank goodness our hotel was not evacuated.
-  Drinking hot chocolate spiked with peppermint schnapps and playing scrabble in front of the lobby fireplace
- Watching The Ring in the theater and then immediately dragging Paul (who was terribly hungry) back in the theater to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, again...to get the horror movie off my mind....we also had to switch hotels as a result of this move as we were in a cabin-like place at the time.
- Eating at the Grizzly House, our favorite by far. 
- Loving the hot springs, and then learning later that my husband made that ultimate sacrifice for me (he does not do hot)
- Dreaming about our future and our family...which couldn't come soon enough.  9 years later we are so truly blessed beyond our wildest dreams.

Happy Valentines Day to My Love

My Beloved,

I am so grateful that our internet romance that freaked out my family has turned into a marriage to brag (blog) about.  :)

In the 10 years I have known you and the 8 years we have been married, I am still in love with the man you are, the spouse you have been and the father you have become.  I know in the hustle and bustle of our lives, our work, our family we don't get much time to sit face to face.  I don't have many moments of quiet to speak your love language, to offer words of affirmation.  

This vday, I hope to find a few moments of quiet with you.  Perhaps a chance to play another round of Scrabble.  A moment to sit in front of a fireplace we are not filling with coal.  A chance to gaze into your eyes and remember when we used to do that for hours.  A couple opportunities to affirm you.

So I will start my valentine now.

Thank you for being the strong man you are.  Thank you for your inner strength.  When I am a mess of emotions, a mess of a housewife, a mess of a mother, you are strong.  You inner strength amazes me.  Your outer strength is not bad either.

Thank you for being my peace.  When I am at the end of the rope, you know and you find a way to calm me.  Be it a hot bath, a candle, a massage, classical music, an extra two hours of sleep...the keys to leave the house, you offer a solution.  You are a peacemaker.  While it has been a long running joke that you totally missed "our" first fight, it is absolutely because trivial things mean nothing to you.  Thanks for understanding sometimes that I need a good fight and trying your best to follow my rules.  :)

Thank you for being a man of faith.  Every day I hear of a situation that makes me praise God you are a man of faith.  I am so grateful we are on this journey together and that you are the head of our household.  I gladly fall under your mission.

Thank you for being a man of patience.  You always said our jobs were to lead each other to heaven, right??  This is how I will get you there!

Thank you for being a man of perseverance.   Our life is not easy.  But it is our life.  I am grateful for your hard work and for your perseverance.  You are an excellent carpenter, a great teacher, you are a humble worker, you are an honest man.  I am amazed at the breadth of your skills and so proud that my husband can do so much more for our house than the average husband.  One day we will have the time....

Thank you for being a strong father.  I will never ever ever worry about my daughter having a strong male role model.  I could not imagine a stronger one.  To see the way she loves you, and more importantly, the way you love her....literally brings tears to my eyes (crying now).  She is a papa's girl.  She is our miracle and thank you for fighting for her with me.  We are blessed.

I hope I am filling up your love tank a bit??? 

I feel I spend so much time self absorbed....or as I say so often, just surviving.  This parenthood gig is harder than we thought!  :)  But I am 10000% grateful that God has chosen you for me.  There is no one in this world more suited for me than you!  I love you.  Happy Valentines Day.

This post was inspired by the song I have been stalking recently, Since Delilah probably won't play it for us....I dedicate this to you.  Set Me As a Seal by Matt Maher.
 (scroll down, pause my play list music, right click on the link and open in a new window, click listen now and come back here to enjoy the lyrics with me)



Set me as a seal on your heart.
Set me as a seal on your soul.
For strong as death is love,
unyielding as the grave.
Nothing will quench its flame,
nothing will quench its flame.

Kiss me, my love,
that your name be on my lips.
You intoxicate my being
with the fragrance of your presence.

How beautiful you are, my darling.
Show me your face, let me hear your voice.
Sweet as the dew in the early morn,
like a lily among the thorns.

I looked for you, the one my heart loves.
I looked for you, but did not find you.
I searched through the night until I rested in your sight.
Now, I will never let you go.

You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes.
Your lips so sweet, adorned with honey.
My hands, they drip with myrrh.