Peter has always been an exceptional person. I spotted that the minute I met him. He is strong, yet gentle; intelligent, but someone who thinks "outside of the box". He is confident in who he is and in God's love for him, yet he is the most humble and genuine soul I have ever met. He is patient and loving. He is a man of God. I am blessed, honored, and humbled that he chose me to be his wife, and mother of his children.
As beautiful of a person as he was when I married him, I am blown away by the man he has become over the ten years we have been a family. He lays down his life for me and our kids, every.single.day.
In some ways, I was broken when I met Peter, but he loved me anyways. He was and still is, incredibly patient with me. He allows me to be myself, make mistakes, and still he loves me unconditionally.
Peter and I met in high school, at the ages of 15 and 16. Rather quickly, we fell in love and knew we were meant for each other. Since we were so young, we met with many challenges to our relationship. From an outside perspective, there were plenty of reasons why we shouldn't have been together. I can't say that we were all that mature and objective enough to know what we were getting into when our relationship went from, "I think you're cute and I want to get to know you", to " I'm in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you", but I can say with complete certainty that we were always committed to each other.
Our first few years of marriage were tough. We had three children in three years, all while Peter finished up his undergrad degree at Michigan State. There were plenty of late nights full of arguments, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and tears. But in the midst of all of it, we grew up together; we grew together; we became one; we became a family. I wouldn't change one single thing about what led us to where we are. It has all shaped and molded us into the family and people that we are today.
So, maybe starting out, we didn't do things exactly how we "should have". Its true that at our beginning, we were more guided by our passions than our reason. But God honored our leap of faith. We discovered an unexpected grace in which God guided every step we took in spite of our failings and naivety. The irony is, had we been smarter about our decisions, we would have made them differently, and we would have missed so much of what we now love most in life.
When I think back on our 19 and 20 year old selves saying our vows on our wedding day, my heart swells with joy and thanksgiving to God for guiding us, bringing us together, and blessing our marriage so abundantly. Thanks be to God, we have a beautiful, crazy, full life...and never in a million years could I ever have imagined one as good as this.
So wonderful. Happy anniversary to you both!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
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