10 Years!

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary! 10 years?! It's a big anniversary! Today, I am filled with happiness and thankfulness. It has been a wild ride with ups and downs, good times and not so good times, lots of adventure, lots of normal and mundane, and lots of learning and growth.

Here is a little synopsis of the last 10 years:

*We've moved ten times and lived in six different towns/cities.
*We've lived overseas two times
*We've had two pets
*We've owned one house and two cars
*We've been able to travel many places including Maui and other places in the U.S., England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
*We've lost one baby to a miscarriage at  twelve weeks
*We now have three healthy and beautiful children

16 year old sweethearts

Cole and I have been a couple for almost half our lives now and I don't think I have ever appreciated him more than I do now. We were babies when we got married...just 21 years old. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, what we were doing, how to love each other, how to compromise, how to listen, or how to be a team. But we have done a lot of learning over the past ten years, sometimes the hard way, and I don't think we have have ever been a better team. We are not the same people we were when we got married all those years ago, but by God's grace, we continue to move forward together.

Of course there are rough moments or days because marriage can be difficult, but I am thankful for a man who is dedicated to me and has determination to make our relationship last for a lifetime. He is a man of integrity, he provides for us, and he loves us. And we love him!

Happy Anniversary Cole! Come What May...

8 Years

Today, June 25th, marks eight years since Cole and I got married! I remember our wedding day well...it was a VERY hot day. The wedding was in a church with no air conditioning and the reception in a tent   in Cole's backyard.

Despite the weather, it was a wonderful day to celebrate with our friends and family and join together as husband and wife after five years of dating. What a day!

As a side note, our journey started long before that day. Cole and I began dating all the way back in high school when I was a junior and Cole was a senior. High school sweethearts! :)  We have been a pair for a long time! 

Shortly after we started dating (2001)

                                            
                                             We felt so much love and support on that day! 

Since then, we have moved many times, including two overseas moves, worked in several different jobs, we've had people come and go in our lives, purchased and sold a house, added two amazing children to our family, and much more in between. Life has drastically changed since the day we were married. Although many things around us have changed, there are still some things that have remained the same.

First of all, Christ is still constant! Even when we forget or ignore His call to love each other in a Christ-like way or are slow to forgive, God is still there. I am thankful that our understanding of Christ in our marriage has grown and that we are continually learning to trust God and follow His will for our family and relationship. We fail often, but He gives us grace to move forward and forgive each other. What a gift! 

Venice

Second, from the very beginning of our relationship, Cole has been my best friend. We were friends before we started dating and, for me, he has remained my very best friend since then. He knows things about me that no one else knows and he still loves me. We have enjoyed so many adventures together, come through challenges, and grown together. He loves me, even in my worst moments. There are so many things in life that have been richer because I have been able to share them with him. Do we have struggles, yes. Have we been through challenging and difficult times, of course! But the fact remains that there is no one else who I would want to walk through this life with other than Cole. My love for him has grown and changed from a giddy, butterflies in your stomach feeling when we first started dating, to a strong commitment and a desire to experience life with him for as long as we are on this earth. Marriage is not always butterflies and roses...there are times when it's hard, or when we disagree and struggle through things, but we have a God who walks through all of that with us. So I am thankful for the eight years that we have been given and look forward to many more to come! 

First Solo Bike Ride = FAIL!

One of the things I was really looking forward to when we moved was being able to get around so easily by foot, bike, tram, etc. We have definitely done a lot of walking and taken a couple tram rides, but not much biking. Our bikes needed a little TLC after the move, so they were in the shop for quite a while. We finally got them back two weeks ago and have enjoyed a couple rides as a family since then.  Gent is a very bike friendly city and transportation by bike is far more common and preferable than driving, so I was excited to start taking part in this too. Let me just say that, back home, we went on rides from time to time as a family and Cole like to do more serious biking, but we did not come from a super bike friendly area. There were trails to ride on, but riding around to run errands or get from point A to point B was not our reality. So fast forward to yesterday. I decided that I needed to start getting out more with the bike during the day...explore more parks, shops, other adventures further away, etc. I'm usually nervous doing new things on my own, but I was especially nervous to take my first solo ride because one, I didn't know where I was going, and two, this would only be my second time pulling the boys in the trailer behind me! So the night before, Cole helped me map out a course so I could avoid really busy roads (trams, buses, etc.) and so I could feel a little more familiar with the route.

Yesterday morning.... I made a plan to ride my bike to the park with the boys, play for a while, then eat a picnic lunch before riding back home for nap time. It was supposed to be in the 80's and really nice, so I was excited to get out. I got up early to get myself ready and pack lunches only to find out that the connecting piece for the bike trailer was on Cole's bike...at his office. He was kind enough to come home to switch it over to my bike and help me get the boys packed up. We left around 9:40 and headed to the park. The trip should have taken 15-20 minutes, so when I had been riding for 30 minutes and did not see the park anywhere in sight, I started to get a bit worried. I called Cole and he told me I had followed the canal the wrong way and was going in the wrong direction! He was willing and able to help me find another way to get back to the park. 25 minutes later, I was at the park, tired, but okay! :) So the boys and I headed to the park to play for a while before lunch. We had a good 10 minutes of fun before Cameron peed in his pants (he is potty trained!!!!) and I didn't have any other clothes for him. So I didn't have any choice but to get back on the bike and head home. I was frustrated and might have been a little short with the boys...maybe that's why Cameron was belting out the chorus of Taylor Swift's "Mean" most of the ride home?! Anyways, off we went to head home. I thought I knew where I was going this time, but once again, after biking for waaaayyyy too long and not getting anywhere that I recognized, I called Cole for more help. He confirmed that I was going the wrong way and needed to turn around. So I gave the boys some water bottles to keep them entertained and turned around to go home. My legs felt like jelly and I was beyond annoyed at this point, so I tried to use my annoyance as fuel to get us home. Between Harrison screaming for the last 10 minutes of the ride because he was tired and hungry and Cameron belting out "Mean," I was ready to loose it. Oh, but that's not all! When I got the boys out of the trailer, I discovered that Cameron had chewed off the top of Cole's nice biking water bottle (I guess in between songs). I got everything put away and brought the boys up to the loft only to have Cameron pee all over the floor!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention that he IS potty trained?! Anyways, Cole ended up coming home and bringing me lunch. I didn't know this at the time, but he had also left work and rode his bike all the way to the park and back to try to find us and help us get home. He's a keeper! :)

The trip was a complete mess and I felt silly for not being able to get to the park and back by myself, but I'm thankful that I at least tried. I'm also extremely grateful for a husband who, despite being busy at work, took most of the day to help me figure things out. I'm pretty certain that he didn't get much done. He even took us on a ride last night back to the park so I now know exactly how to there. So, despite being embarrassed that I couldn't do it and also being very sore this morning, we will try again!