9

I didn't wear a big fancy dress.

I didn't walk down a flower covered isle, link arm in arm with my Dad.

We didn't spend months planning or send out invitations.  

In fact, I don't even know what time of day it was.

But 9 years ago today, I married My Andrew.

Man, I look at these pictures and we were such BABIES!

I see 19 year olds now and think, "they are WAY to young to be getting married!"

And even though Andrew and I both agree we may have been a wee bit young to strike out on our own, we have no doubt that we were each others forever.

Nobody else could put up with my excessive need for order or his extreme need for change.

We are total opposites that, by some strange miracle, function only with the balance the other person brings.

(I laugh every time I see this picture!  Andrew looks so excited and I look slightly over it, clutching my Marriage License.  It was a long road to get here!)

This past 9 years has been full of ups and downs.

Job changes, infertility, mortgage payments, too many bills and not enough money.  

We had to learn how to fight without crushing the other persons spirit.

We've moved 6 times and built a house together.

We experienced the unbelievable joy of watching a car pull into our driveway with our Josie Kathryn sleeping inside and the racked nerves of Gabriel's case.

All of it, side by side.

I'm more then excited to see what the next 9 years holds for us.

I feel like we have arrived at a spot where we know each other so completely and life just works and flows and we are in perfect sync.

I'm so very thankful that I reached over and grabbed his hand back at Summer Camp in June of 2000.

We've come a long ways in 11 years!

Happy Anniversary To My Most Favorite of Favorites!