How long has it been?

Just like I can't believe I have a son that is three, it's even harder for me to believe that Mike and I have been married for five years. Even crazier is that we've been together for 7 1/2!

I remember our wedding day so clearly. Getting ready in the morning, I filled up the jacuzzi tub in the hotel room just so I could shave my legs with the best lighting, not to miss any. I went and had my nails done and had fake eyelashes put on. I went to get my hair done and it was so fun chatting with all the women in the salon about my big day. Showing up to the church with butterflies all up in my stomach. Slipping into my dress that I had spent hours and hours looking for with my mom. Putting in the veil and looking at myself in the mirror. I just remember thinking, "this is seriously the best day ever." Even though it was raining and it was probably the most humid Indiana day I had ever remembered, none of that mattered. I was about to walk down the aisle and meet the man I had fallen in love with, grown to absolutely adore and dreamed about spending the rest of my life with. It was really going to happen. My wedding day.

Fast forward five years, two kids, a move to the Dominican Republic and we've got today. Although my wedding day was the most beautiful day of my life, our everyday life is just as beautiful. Even with Handy Manny dominoes strewn across the living room floor, 18 juice cups hidden beneath the couch, a gazillion rattles that i trip on and nearly break my ankle every time, and maybe more than one conversation between the hubs and I that could have been said with a little less, um, snippy-ness...even with all of that, it is beautiful.

Our life together has turned out nothing like I thought it would. I figured we'd have a house with property, maybe even horses. I'd run my photo studio out of our home. Mike would be working with some Parks and Recreation department running and scheduling all of their activities. And even though sometimes I daydream of that life that I had planned out so long ago, what God has done is much bigger. We've made our home in the Dominican, and it feels like home. So much so that when we are in the States it feels a little foreign. God had blessed us beyond measure and beyond what we could have ever imagined. We are grateful for this season of life, with all of its sippy cup disasters and beautiful Sunday morning family time on our bed. I couldn't count the number of times that I've felt this unexplainable surrounding of God's peace as I sit and think about where our family is. And to think...it all began because two people fell in love.

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Because our anniversary is in the middle of our busy season here in the Dominican we can't do anything extravagant until after summer is over. But we always make sure and do a nice dinner. This year, they opened a Chili's about five minutes from our house. All I have to say is YUM-O!