Happy Anniversary, A. :-)

It’s our fourth wedding anniversary! And the first time I’m not working on our anniversary!

We’ve been through a lot in our marriage so far. We’ve been through a lot in the approximately 13 years we’ve been together, too, but just in the four years we’ve been married:

We’ve uprooted and moved to new places and new jobs twice.

Plus there was a third move between houses and there were a few smaller moves while we were house shopping and living in temporary places for three months.

We’ve lived in all three West Coast states.

We bought a house. (No more moving!)

I graduated from nursing school and launched a new career.

A. shifted his career direction a few times.

A. left a good job and made a big move with me to support my career.

We supported each other through the death of our beloved dog, who was at our wedding.

We got a puppy and raised and (somewhat) trained him together.

I got pregnant and was sick for the first three months of pregnancy.

We had a baby!

We survived an emergency room visit and a hospitalization with our baby.

We didn’t know all of these things would happen when we made our promises to each other on our wedding day, but we’ve kept our promises! Our family and friends have also done their parts to support our togetherness, and I really appreciate it; I think it makes a big difference.

The crises and difficult times we’ve been through are sometimes the things that are hard on relationships, but all of ours have made me love him more. Every time we go through something hard, I’m so grateful to be going through it with him. Maybe the harder thing in a marriage is remembering to be grateful for all the boring days in between the big ones, but having a baby (and working nights!) has definitely made me value any time we get together!

One of the lines in our wedding ceremony was, “Be constantly grateful for the presence of this person who has chosen to make a life with you.” What a gift to receive from a person, that every day they choose to keep making a life with you!

Happy Anniversary, A. 🙂