21 Years and Counting!

Today, John and I celebrate 21 years of marriage!💛 It’s strange how time can fly by and feel like it hasn’t has passed at all, all in the same breath.

Marriage is often the extraordinary sprinkled in with the everyday things that fill our lives — it possesses the perplexing quality of being both exhilarating and downright frustrating — and often at the same time😂!

John and I have had to fight through A LOT in our early years of marriage, but recently, we’ve discovered we worked through a lot of those things — or maybe it’s just that we’ve learned to accept that some things won’t change about the other person and that’s okay, because we love each other, anyway.

There is a beauty in learning to love what is different in the other and accepting that challenges are a part of any worthwhile relationship. Any good relationship takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it! 

It’s been a crazy adventure and I’m grateful for all of it — even the difficult stuff.

We’ve trekked through rainforests and wooded trails, over oceans, up mountains, through crowded cities and empty countrysides, and along ancient pilgrim paths — and we’ve done most of those things with a bunch of kids in tow, too.

We’ve survived heat and exhaustion and hunger and epic arguments, narrowly avoided terrorist attacks and bad spills and other dangers and inconveniences along the way — and we’re always crazy enough to want to jump in a car or a plane and do it all over again!🤗

So glad we’ve shared that adventurous spirit for travel with our kids! I’m pretty sure they’re happy about it, too.

This picture above pretty much sums up family life and family travel in a nutshell: some kids happy, some kids sad, some kids tired, and some not sure they want to be associated with the family. Ha, ha!

I wouldn’t have us all neatly lined up and smiling for anything — this is much more a true picture of life in a family and that’s why it’s one of my favorites!

It’s been a beautiful 21 years with this guy and these kids, and today — despite all the craziness surrounding us — I feel nothing but gratitude and hope for the future.

So hooray for the grace of the Sacrament!  Hooray for 21 years of marriage!  Love you, John!