Another Year...

Nine years of marriage.

We've done so much together that we could not have possibly done alone.

We've have been entrusted with three beautiful souls whose presence blesses us in ways beyond our mortal ability to comprehend.

We've suffered loss that only parents can know. We are the only two people on this planet who can truly say to eachother "I know how that feels" for the hope in each of us was the same.

We know the other's private dreams we are so hesitant to publicly share. The daily triumphs and heartbreaks that make up this life.

There are days, like today, when our eyes meet across the table amid the chaos and we still see each other. When the spark that brought us together is bright and vibrant.

There are days when those lights seem dark and hard to find. We feel like ships passing in the night; so close, yet on our own course and thus, unable to see the other.

When we are rowing in different directions with our sights set on our own aspirations, we become those distant ships.

But, when we focus on the same desire, with eternity as the destination, we are not only able to find each other on the stormy seas, but are one vessel with a common course.

The journey to that place is rarely pretty, decorated with the perfect smiles caught on film, but is filled with the times when we carry each other. When we are willing to reach out and lift the other to be with us, rather than go on alone. That is when we so clearly see that our fierce desire to be independent is not our greatest strength.

But that our ability to put aside our own selfish desires in order to be what the other needs, that is where our power lies.

This is the engine that keeps us propelling toward that great goal: to be with this family forever.

I would be nothing without this family.

Without you.

Happy Anniversary.