14 years ago

My camera's not beside me and I'm tired and just too lazy to go get it and upload the pictures, hopefully I'll share some later! The point of this post though is that today Chad and I celebrated 14 years of marriage! I feel so blessed that this year we were able to actually go out and celebrate. We rarely do that, for one he's so often not home (deployed or out training) or just can't justify it financially to go out and do anything. This year we were able to. Chad called and made reservations for us at a steak place and it was AWESOME. I got what they call the Women's Tenderloin, it was so good! Tender and juicy. I got a side of mushrooms that were seasoned perfectly. Chad who doesn't care for mushrooms even agreed that they were good! Oh and while waiting on dinner they brought us two homemade wheat/whole grain rolls with homemade pesto sauce and wow, seriously delicious! I would go back there just for the rolls, but the steaks were just so insanely good! Now I'm a steak snob. I grew up on a farm where every year my dad would pick out his best steer and fatten him up and he'd end up in our deep freezor once big enough. So I know what a good steak should taste like. Of course it's taken me a few years of marriage to even want steak, because we ate it so much growing up (5 to 6 nights out of the week, I got pretty sick of it!). Chad has no empathy for me at all! LOL
Anyways, back to our evening! We hired a teen that we know and trust to watch the kids. Jack came in a couple hours before we were due to go out and said he was invited over for a sleep over at our neighbor who lives directly in front of us, so down one kid. Then after the babysitter arrived the mom of one of Jacob's best friends called and asked if he could spend the night....two kids gone. So she now only had Emma. We'd debated leaving Noah, but figured we'd have to come home earlier than planned to nurse him and he'd just been sort of off all day, so he went with us. He was such a good boy! After dinner we went and just walked around our beautiful city. I shared to Chad how I felt so much at HOME here in Germany, and in our beautiful city. I just love it here. The thought of having to leave makes me sick to my stomach. I know if we do, it's in God's plan for us, I just know my heart does not want to leave this place, not yet anyways. After walking around we drove to our favorite Eis shoppe (Ice cream shoppe). They were having a special on Spaghetti Eis, sweet! Now if you've never been in Germany you may not know the wonderfulness that is spaghetti eis. It's just simply ice cream pushed through a tool to look like spaghetti, topped with a cherry sauce (or strawberry), with white chocolate sprinkled to look like parmesian cheese. So good! Well they had every thought you could ever imagine for spaghetti eis tonight. I got strawberry, fresh strawberries...oh it was so very good. Chad got three different ones on a plate. We figured that they'd be much smaller servings, oh no normal sizes all 3 of them! It had vanilla (classic), strawberry, and chocolate. They were all good, and I had a couple bites of the strawberry and chocolate...some how he managed to eat them all. Of course once we got home, it hit him how miserable he was! LOL

I feel so blessed that we got to spend time together, although we had Noah with him, we just really cherished being together. Holding hands, talking, lots of laughing, and being in amazement at how fast the last 14 years have went and yet how it feels like we've always been together. I'm so thankful that God brought Chad into my life. I'm thankful that I married my best friend. That we've been blessed with 5 beautiful children. I wouldn't have wanted to go through the good or the hard times with anyone else. Deployments are hard, but reunions are so sweet. God has held us through many times when we both are hurting, he's healed hurts, show us how to grow our love, cherish the moments we have together, and reminds us how precious our time is here on Earth. We don't know what tomorrow holds for us, but for tonight I'm thankful that 14 years ago, I married the man I never knew to dream of. I married the man who had become my best friend. Who loved (s) me passionately. Who dreamed of a future with me on our first date and wasn't afraid to share with me! Who loves God fully. I'm so thankful and so very blessed. Marriage is HARD. It'd be easier to just throw it away, but it's worth all the hard work. It's worth the sweat and tears that come from it. It's a blessed union under GOD and that should never, ever be taken lightly.

I love you Chad and look forward to what God has instore for us for the rest of our lives! Here's to another 40 to 50 years!!!