Two Years.

On Monday Andrew & I celebrated two years. Two years. How is that even possible? Just yesterday I was walking down the aisle of our church with the cutest boy waiting at the altar. Just yesterday we were dancing to Frank Sinatra in his parent’s front yard surrounded by our family and friends. But two years worth of memories bridge the gap between then and now and convince me that here we are. Two years later. 

As I was just reminiscing on how absolutely wonderful our wedding day was, the thought hit me that if someone was to offer me the chance to go back to that day, my answer would always be no. Because as wonderful as that day was, today is even better. Today – with all of its messiness and chaos that is life – is so much sweeter because of the days in between that have shaped us. The days that were hard and we woke up a little less giddy than on that first morning. The days that broke us down and forced us to rely on each other. The days that we learned what made each other tick – and the days we learned how to love in each others language. 

Every time we were forced to sit down and have the hard conversation, to say the hard words, to extend forgiveness, to choose love. Every prayer that we uttered, every inside joke we shared, every time we danced in the kitchen. I am a much better person – we are a much better couple – than we even could have imagined that night as we swayed and twirled in our fancy clothes and our shiny new rings. We couldn’t have known that it was possible for our hearts to expand in such ways, to love deeper. For our hearts to actually feel like one and the same.

Andrew's love has taught me more about Christ's love in two years than I could have learned in a lifetime. He loves me when I am not lovable and extends grace when I definitely don't deserve it.

He is my biggest supporter, my most loyal friend, my forever dancing partner. I cannot wait to see what the next few years bring because I can't imagine loving him any more than I do now. My heart is full.

                                       

We were actually worried that we wouldn't get to spend our anniversary together because Andrew is working out of town most nights of the week right now. At the last minute he got to come home, but had to get up super early Tuesday morning to drive back to work. We are thankful for such small blessings.

Since we were on vacation last year we didn't eat our wedding cake so we dug it out of the freezer and tried to eat it - it was awful. You aren't missing anything if you have never tasted a 2 year old cake.

 

Happy anniversary to my sweet sweet husband!

And thanks to Courtney Fallin at www.courtneyfallinphotography.net for the use of these pictures and for doing such a fabulous job! The pictures were taken on our property where we plan to build a house next year so they are special to us. :-)

A Punta Cana {First} Anniversary

We spent our first anniversary in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – it was the perfect vacation and completely opposite of our honeymoon. We spent our honeymoon in Maui and we packed our week full of activities, wanting to enjoy everything the island had to offer. Our honeymoon was fabulous but this year we decided to do absolutely nothing but lay on the beach and relax.. and that is exactly what we did. It was perfect to just refresh and enjoy each other. We are so thankful to have had this opportunity. We know that as the years go by, life will just get busier and we want to take advantage of the time we have now to just get away and focus on our relationship.

Arriving in the Dominican...

We stayed at the Excellence Resort and I would definitely recommend it. The grounds were beautiful and the staff was amazing and so very generous. The only tricky part was getting from the airport to the hotel. We had arranged a taxi transport service prior but we had no idea that it was a little over an hour drive to the resort. We left the airport in a taxi with a Spanish-speaking driver (neither of us know much Spanish) and had no idea where we were going. We drive for about 30 minutes before our driver pulls off on the side of the road by a rundown stand? fruit market? Andrew looks at me and in an attempt to make me laugh says "Have you ever seen the movie Taken?" - at the time that was not funny. I was a little scared to be honest - I felt completely at the mercy of this stranger to take me where I needed to go. After a few minutes he got back in the car with two cokes, a bottled water, and a bag of chips and handed it all to us but one coke for himself. What a relief and I felt extremely grateful for his small act of kindness - proof that kindness can surpass even language barriers. 

I'm going to back track a little, but as we drove through the streets of Punta Cana (which got worse the further from the airport), I was reminded how blessed I am to live in America. Where nice roads and clean houses are too often taken for granted. I wish I had taken more pictures during the drive but at the time I was a little too nervous. Looking back one thing sticks in my mind. Every one I saw was doing something productive. From the crews working to build new roads to the lady sweeping the dirt floor of her fruit stand, no one seemed to be sitting around waiting on someone else to get things done. The more I think about that, the more it saddens me that although we have so much in America, we have become complacent. We are too "settled" with the way things are. We should never stop trying to make it better. 

Okay, so back in Punta Cana. When we got married we had a sign at the entrance to the church that said "Choose a seat, not a side" - we had written it on a chalkboard and I kept it. We took the same chalkboard with us and wrote "1 year" on it. My plan is for us to take a picture with it every year on our anniversary - I don't know if we will always remember - but I will always treasure these we took on this trip.

On the night of our anniversary we had dinner at The Lobster House. Our waiter was so generous and brought us a bag of Dominican coffee as a gift, as well as whipped up a heart from towel napkins and sprinkled it with rose petals to decorate our table. I fell in love with the Dominican people - they were such happy, generous people.

Each night there was special entertainment, but on Monday night they fixed an extravagant dinner and set it up on the beach. It was a beautiful night.

Other pictures from around the resort. There were two pools but our favorite was the cascade pool - where there were lounge chairs in a shallow part of the pool. It was the best idea ever. Especially considering the heat there - I only thought Louisiana was hot and humid.

And I just couldn't leave without taking a few more pictures of us on the beach. There was a wedding our last night there and we took advantage of the wedding gazebo.

 

Happy first anniversary to my sweet husband! Thanks for taking me on this trip - I will forever cherish the memories we made! Ready to see what the next year brings!