9 years today!

9 years ago today I walked down the aisle to Tony Brooks. It was the proudest moment of my life. I could not believe the Lord had, in His goodness, given him to me. I was beside myself. One of my mentors in college had told me..."When a country picks its ambassadors, it picks someone who hopefully represents the very best of the country...its very heart. When you begin to look for a spouse choose someone who you will be proud to know represents you...because that is exactly what they will do. For the rest of your life people will look at your spouse and they will see your heart." My word...I walked down the aisle quite sure I could not love a person more than I loved Tony. When you look at our wedding album the pictures of us walking back down the aisle are blurry. The Photographer apologized but said , "You all were moving too fast." We actually were running...running to start our new life together. We could not wait.

Our honey moon is a hilarious story...many great moments but more hilariously stressful ones...we missed our flight...I lost my purse...the airline lost my luggage (and regardless of what my brother Sam says I actually did want to have clothes on my honeymoon.)Way too many stories to tell over the internet...It was an introduction to life. Being in love did not mean our humaness disappeared, we remained two people who desperately needed Jesus....and we needed Him in a real way if our marriage was going to be more than just two people who liked each other living together.

A lot has happened in 9 years...There has been a lot of laughter...a lot of tears...we have watched each other walk through life...we have done more than watch, we have come alongside...On days when we have felt overwhelmed the other has stepped up and said, Let me carry it for awhile. We have cried together and asked the Lord to come quickly. We have held our children together and proclaimed them perfect...We have fallen to our knees together countless times because of those sweet children and their imperfections. I have been madder at him than I have ever been at anyone else...(and he could say likewise) and yet we have always been able to laugh at it later. We have seen that the Lord matched us up perfectly...not because we are exactly alike and have the same interests...but because we do not. We make each other better. He likes clean baseboards...I still do not know what those are. I like long conversations in the middle of the day, even while he is at work. He reminds me that is why I have my mother.

My goodness I love this man! When my grandfather was dying my dad asked him what part of his life he would like to do over if he could and he said, "I loved falling in love with your mother." I loved falling in love with Tony. I woke up with a smile before I could even remember why I was smiling. These days, I wake up and walk into walls before I remember why I am up...Oh yes, feed the baby...or someone is coughing...or I need to get someone to school...and yet I love Tony more now than I ever dreamed I could then. On our wedding day I felt so certain...so in love...so at peace that he was it for me.

These days I see him holding our baby...wrestling with our boys...folding laundry...cleaning baseboards...reading his Bible...leading our family in prayer...loving people in our life who are difficult to love...shaking his head when I get two "you ran a stop light tickets" in the mail in one day (Please do not bring that up to him, he's not ready to laugh yet, but I have a feeling its coming :))working for our family, for us.... I see him loving us with everything he is and I think if we had it to do all over again I would not walk down that aisle to him...I would run to him.