Happy Anniversary

Today Brian and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything fancy. We went to a little Italian place for lunch. It was nice because it was just us. There was no cutting up food or wiping faces and hands. That in itself was a treat. I still can't believe that we have already been married for 8 years. We both have changed so much since the day we said "I do". When we said our vows we had so many dreams and we had "our plan" for our marriage and our life. I have to admit that our lives and our marriage has turned out much different than "our plans" from 8 years ago. I sit here and think about what is our marriage today? Well, it's laying in bed watching television late at night. It's laying on the floor playing with our kids on a Saturday morning. It's me looking up from my book to see Brian just staring at me and telling me how beautiful I am in my pajamas with no makeup on. Its dragging him and two fussy kids to one more store looking to look for that perfect gift. It's spending countless nights in the emergency room or the ICU with a sick child and being scared to death but relying on each other. It's our marriage and our life but it's not perfect. Sometimes it's laying side by side in bed watching the ceiling fan spin, crying because I just can't handle living without my son. It's the sharp voice or a catty comment that comes out of you when you when a simple question is asked. It wishing you could tell that young couple that got married 8 years ago today that sometimes you will have a year where there is some "worse" with the "better." Through it all we have learned God's plan is sometimes different than our own plan and that we have to trust in him. So even though "our plans" have changed over the years we have sustained it and we are stronger from it. Even on his worse day I love that man more today than even 8 years ago.