Still married

When I first saw my husband, he caught my attention, but no big deal. This happened at church during some Bible meetings and I was not looking for a relationship. However, when we officially introduced ourselves to one another, instead of just eyeballing like we had done for several days, it was clear that there was a small attraction. As our casual friendship grew, I decided with my head that I was not interested, as we were both in different places in our lives, however, my heart didn't think that way. My heart was falling in love, in spite of what my head was thinking. I prayed a lot about this matter and felt like God was telling me to go ahead with this relationship. Soon, my heart won and I was in love with this handsome man. I wish I could say that this was the end of a happy ending, but it wasn't. Now, we needed to get my family on board, and this was the hardest thing to overcome, even for years to come.

Like I said earlier because we were both in such different places in life and for previous life-choices and other reasons, a lot of my family members were not excited about us being together. I believe that listening to the family is important, they pointed a lot of good things out and had valid reasons, however, after praying and seeking counsel from my professors and pastors, I was convicted that it was okay for us to marry. Having said this, I didn't jump into this without knowing that there would be tears along the way. When two people come together there is an adjustment period, so imagine when you bring a blended family together, there is for SURE, an adjustment period too. (If you are thinking about marriage, do not jump into it, seek counsel, pray about it, use your head, when I said my heart won, this doesn’t mean I just made a decision based on my feelings. Of course not. I was well informed and knew what I was getting into, for the most part. Remember there are always surprises in marriages).

Because a lot of my family was not super excited about our relationship, I decided to distant (to some extent) myself from those I loved. I planned our wedding by myself (I lived in Michigan and got married in Florida). I had never planned a wedding or helped anyone plan one, so this was new territory for me and on the day of the wedding it proved to be a disaster. This bothered me for a while. I never dreamt on a big wedding, I just wanted an outside beautiful, intimate family wedding. On our wedding day, the weather was awful, the harpist, who was in charge of 90% of the music, was in the wrong hotel, some of my special musics cancel on me a couple of days before and the cake was the ugliest thing I had seen. BUT, in the midst of all of that mess, I found the intimacy that I had desired and I was surrounded by those who loved me.

Fourteen years later (today, Dec. 26), I can say that my family has learned to love and accept my wonderful husband. Hubby and I have grown and matured a lot over the years. We have had wonderful memories together and also extremely painful ones too. There have been lots of tears, but also lots of joy. Through our marriage, we have been able to help other couples....not because we are an example of an amazing couple. We have been able to help others because we have experienced God's love, grace, and forgiveness in holding us together. We are still on this journey and we continue to learn and grow. This has been our choice! Of course, we still get in each other's nerves at times and have to hold our tongues many times, but at the same time, we find time to flirt and make our hearts skip, because we love each other.

These two songs are our songs and describe how we felt from the beginning and how we feel now.

From this Moment

I just swear
That I'll aways be there
I give anything
And everything
And I will always care
Through weakness and strength
Happiness and sorrow
For better, for worse
I will love you
With every beat of my heart

From this moment life has begun
From this moment you are the one
Right beside you is where I belong
From this moment on

From this moment, I have been blessed
I live only, for your happiness
And for your love, I give my last breath
From this moment on

I give my hand to you with all my heart
I can't wait to live my life with you I can't wait to start
You and I will never be apart
My dreams came true because of you

From this moment, as long as I live
I will love you, I promise you this
There is nothing, I wouldn't give
From this moment on

You're the reason I believe in love
And you're the answer to my prayers from up above
All we need is just the two of us
My dreams came true because of you

Still the One

Looks like we made it
Look how far we've come my baby
We mighta took the long way
We knew we'd get there someday

They said "I bet they'll never make it"
But just look at us holding on
We're still together still going strong

You're still the one I run to
The on that I belong to
You're still the one I want for life
(You're still the one)
You're still the one I love
The only one I dream of
You're still the one I kiss good night

Ain't nothin' better
We beat the odds together
I'm glad we didn't listen
Look at what we would be missin'
They said "I bet they'll never make it"
But just look at us holdin' on
We're still together still goin' strong

Both songs by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain