Magic Anniversary - 15 years on May 15th

Warning: I am about to make every girl on the planet extremely jealous. Also, there is a lot of sappy, love stuff, so ew!!! Feel free to stop reading right now. Please don't be mad at me for bragging, this boy deserves to be bragged about.

Because of these anniversary posts, I'm slowly scanning in my wedding scrapbook. I should have it done by the time we hit our 50th anniversary, woohoo! I look so serious here, and so baby-faced!

Now the sappiness:

I like to wake up extra early in the morning, not only to exercise, but first I also like to have some time to read, think and pray when the house is quiet and no one is yet calling my name. I need that time as much as I need to exercise, it helps me get centered and happy first thing so I can ride the wave of each crazy day and come out on the other side mostly upright. Awhile ago Marquis started joining me in the mornings, waking up early so he can spend time in the quiet with just us. Most days we don't talk, but sometimes we whisper of hopes and dreams, of the funny things the kids do, and of how much we will miss each other when he leaves for work for the day. I love our special time!

A couple of mornings ago I whispered to him a silly dilemma of mine, an instance where I have too many good things to choose from and I just want to do them all. I asked him what he thought I should do, and his answer was, "Whatever you want." Now, coming from most husbands, that statement is a brush off. It means, "This is a stupid, small thing that I don't really care about anyway, but you will probably get mad at me if I tell you what I really feel, so I'm going to give what sounds like the only safe answer." With Marquis, though, what he really meant was, "Whatever you want." So I told him, "You should get what you want sometimes, too," to which he answered, "What I want is for you to get what you want." And he meant it!

When I married this man 15 years ago, I expected to love him. I expected that we would have hard times and that we would work through them. I expected that we would have kids and that we would then laugh together with and about these kids and enjoy raising them together.

What I didn't expect was someone who truly did support me in everything I wanted to do. He is willing to do everything and anything I ask. He has made so many sacrifices for me and for his daughters. I also didn't expect a man who would put the toilet seat down, every single time. I didn't expect that he would come home from working hard every day and immediately sit down to massage my feet and ask me about my day. I didn't truly understand how hard the hard times would get (who can really understand until you are in them?), but I also didn't understand how amazingly, gloriously, wonderful the good times are.

I also didn't understand just how deeply you could love someone, and amazingly that love keeps growing every day.

Happy anniversary, Marquis!