As long as we love one another, God will live in us, and His love will be complete in us.
1 John 1:12
This is the verse that was on our beautiful wedding invitations ten years ago and each day of our marriage we have leaned on them sometimes on our own but always together! We chose those invitations because of the verse and then we made the verse our vow to each other. In our marriage each year we have leaned on that verse through various trials and blessings!
July 28, 2001 - 2002=year one We were brought through all the trials of a young first time, first year married couple from being able to pay the bills to learning to live with each others idiosyncrecies. Paul was the only one working and I was finishing up my degree so times were hard but we loved each other and made it to the whole year still married!
2002-2003= year two We decided to start trying for a family knowing it may take a while, so we got our cat Belle who became our "first child". We used this time to trust in God to provide the right time for our children and when things took a little longer than expected, our verse reminded us that it would all be okay. When God dropped Belle in our lap, it eased that desire and disappointment.
2003- 2004=year three This was a particularly hard year for us because we had been trying for over a year to have a baby and decided to medically investigate the cause. No one in a marriage wants to be the "one" who cannot make the other's dreams a reality, so each test and procedure took a toll on each of us but our verse brought us through and made us stronger.
2004- 2005= year four After several failed attempts at various fertility drugs, ultrasounds, shots, AI's, we prayed and sought out the next step and the answer was to take a time out of sorts. We were going to take this year off and enjoy each other and not do any medical procedures just wait year and then decide what God wants us to do. In that time, God gave us the motivation and distraction of exercise! It was that year I went from a size 20 to a size 10 and lost almost 75 pounds!! It was very cool how I took my obsession to become a mother and used it in a more constructive way than crying and being in a state of depression. Our verse was the culprit behind it all.
2005-2006 = year five This year the verse was vital because we were going to attempt IVF to have a baby. Due to the stress and expense of it all we prayed hard for the choice to proceed and God, through this verse, and several others told us to go ahead because it will only take once. Well, through His praises we had a wreck, totaled our car and used that money to pay for the IVF and in August of that year, just a month after our 5 year anniversary we found out that finally we were going to have not one but two babies!!
2006 -2007= year six This was the year Paul and I finally got to welcome our first and second of three precious miracles into our lives. On April 12, 2007 Audrey Gray and Allyson Faith made their debut and it was His perfect love that we saw in a whole new way.
2007-2008=year seven It was easy for us to see His perfect love every day because it was in the eyes of our daughters, in their laughs, smiles, and the day to day tasks of being a parent. We love to say that our girls a a testimony and they truly are. Our love for them and Him was evident each day and only got bigger!
2008-2009= year eight This year we took our first big family vacation and took a cruise to Mexico. That was pretty cool! It was during this year that I once again had to rely on his timing and his choices for my life and to see His perfect love shine on us again because we found out that a third little miracle would be joining us! Ian was not planned by us and was not even a thought due to all the trouble we had with the girls but He knew!
2009-2010= year nine Miracle number three came along this year on April 22, 2010 and his name is Ian Mayer. His birth was rather scary and our verse was our rock once again during this time and everything that faced us and Ian was made perfect! We were blessed and content with our newest addition and since his arrival he has brought us more joy and happiness than we ever expected when we started out on our parenting journey. God was in control from our first attempt and when his timing became perfect so did our lives and our relationship with Him and each other did too!
2010-2011= year ten This last year brought about one big change that is just now about to go into effect. God put a real burden on my heart to stop teaching and stay at home full time with my babies. I had always wanted to since the girls were born but this time it was different, it was His perfect timing again in our lives again, so we trusted it and now I am a full time mommy. God lives in us and in our kids so every choice we make and every trial we face is made perfect. This time, though very scary financially, is what is right for us and this too will turn out just like He wants.
In our ten years we have experience His perfect love in many ways and I am looking forward to many more experiences with it.
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