Happily Four

We’re still working our way towards ever after, but the last four years have been incredible. I almost hesitate to say how happy I am for fear of ‘the other shoe’ dropping. Almost. Instead I’ll say it, trusting God and His plan for our lives instead of holding my breath. Life is so wonderful.

The longer Blake and I are together the more it seems we complement each other. It’s amazing to see what God can do with two people when we let Him grow and change us, albeit slowly, closer to His image. I look back at how we felt when we got married. We were on cloud nine, dizzy with love. We knew we were good together, but we had no idea what God had in store. We couldn't have imagined how He would grow and ground our love even deeper every day.

I know that we wouldn’t be where we are now if God wasn’t a part of changing and growing us. I know we would have struggle through the stresses of life, instead of flourished. I know it isn’t luck when I look at Blake and wonder how I got this lucky.

When I look at my husband’s eyes today I see the eyes of the boy I met so many years ago. They still twinkle when he smiles and flash with mischievousness when he teases. Now they also tear up when they look at me holding our daughter. He’s still the same kind, funny and rugged guy he’s always been, just with a softer heart as he seeks to honor the Lord more every day. I respect him, trust him and I’m so proud to be his wife.

In four years we’ve enjoyed so many special things together. We usually use our anniversary as an excuse to travel, first Venice, Italy and Greece; second was Australia and third was Rome, Italy and Israel. For our fourth we traverse the new world of parenthood and we are loving every minute of it. All the countries in the world can’t compete with seeing our sweet girl looking in our eyes and smiling. We have loved experiencing all that we did together, but we’re ready for this new stage and adventure of a different kind.

We continued our tradition of recreating one of our favorite wedding pictures. 

Four years

Three years

Two years
(after being up for over 30 hours returning home from Australia!)

One year

Our big day

And because I could pick just one.. here was the alternate. Emerson is a little more visible, but it isn't as close to the original.. and lets be honest, it came down to my hair.

We also took one just the two of us.