Seven Year Anniversary

To ring in this anniversary we lounged about Lowes and ate at Tucanos. I left some surprises on our bed for Damon, with one picture to correlate each year we've know each other, and a summary of what that year meant for us. 

2011

When I think of our first year, I think we were young.

Two people still stumbling, our lives just begun.

I hardly knew me, you hardly knew you,

and together we fell in love, it’s just what you do. 

It’s just what you do and it’s easy to do.

In the beginning its puppy love. But I’m glad it was you.

I’m glad it was you because how lucky are we?

I thought I knew you, you thought you knew me.

But seven years in now,  and I’m starting to see

I’m starting to see what love means to me.

What love means to you, what love means as 'We.' 

2012

Married and honeymoon, college and you.

Working lots, playing, and growing some too.

Adventures and couple time, I just felt so grown

It was the simplest of times, we couldn’t have known.

We ended the year closer than the start,

Communicating, learning, and loving with heart.

Looking back now would you change how it went?

It went too fast, but was very well spent.

 2013

This year brought us change, the best and the worst.

Our hearts grieved and soared threatening to burst.

We met our Sweet Indie, little partner in crime

We stumbled through hardship, one step at a time.

We grew closer through stumbles, our love deepening more.

I felt so grateful to have you, more than before.

I was coming to know you, your heart and your soul.

Support to our family, regardless the toll. 

2014

We settled right in; me, 'Mom' and you, 'Dad'.

I got to see how much patience you had.

Patience for me, and patience for us.

Patience for that sweet little babe when she’d fuss.

You were gentle and strong and always so nice.

We had a beautiful year, with one glaring vice

We struggled to bring Christ into our life

We muted that part, but it didn’t cause strife.

Giving me the space I needed to process

and supporting me, not minding the mess.

2015

You did it, you beautiful, handsome, strong man.

You graduated college, though not according to plan.

I don’t care how we got from point A to point B.

I love you forever, I wish you could see.

I wish I could take the pain of that time

But try as I did, it was your mountain to climb.

As time heals, and we move from that place

I’ve grown grateful for that mountain, it was never a race.

We are who we are, because of that climb

It made me yours, and it made you mine

So while I know the regret lingers in bouts

Remember I’ve never had any doubts

I don’t doubt who you are, I don’t doubt what you do.

I’m so very grateful that you are simply just you. 

 2016

A new job, a new state, a new baby girl too.

Our love welcomed in little sweet Stella Stu

We felt the strain on our ‘Us’, juggling so much of 'New'.

Do you remember those drives where it was just me & just you?

Just me & just you and the kids in the back.

Asleep as we went, their breath our soundtrack.

With no place to be, and no worry to where

You sat by my side, in those moments we’d share.

I’d share my me and you’d share your you.

Together we were ‘Us’, it was only us two.       

Just me & just you and the kids in the back.

Driving through country, their breath our soundtrack.

2017

New cities, more moves and our first baby boy.

Change came quick and we basked in the joy.

We bought our first home now a family of five.

We clung to the Lord and continued to strive.

We had high highs and some terrible lows.

On cliffs edge in the forest we hung our toes.

Me to myself and you over there,

We sat in the silence, too loud to bear.

That night will forever ring in my head

Echoing a lesson of where we have tread.  

Through the tears and the changes and the struggles to cope

You have always been beside me, my safety, my rope.

2018

For the first time in ever, since we became 'We'

There’s no looming change, as far as we see.  

No more moves, or babies, our family is set.

But this is a phase we will never forget.

Our babies are growing, so beautiful, so strong

But that doesn’t mean nothing ever goes wrong.

That moment we faced our sweet lifeless Finn.

It put us in a place we never had been.

This life is precious, and we don’t always choose 

So we cling to the good regardless the views

I cling to you and you cling to me

Trusting in the Lord, it's meant to be. 

2019

Married. Seven years in and here we are now.

You’re the rock to my wave, to my dreams you’re the plough.  

You serve me and serve me, no uttered complaint.

You are tender by nature and show great restraint.  

You engulf all my words, pained by my pain.

You are loyal to your core regardless the strain.

My heart is with you, I go where you go.        

My home is where you are, with you I will sow.

Sow the seeds of our life, scattered about as we go.

Our children, our faith, our joy, watch it grow.

I love you, and love you, and love you some more.

This life is not mine, it is ‘Us’ to its core.