I scrambled through my boxes of photos, looking for pictures from our wedding. Today is our thirtieth anniversary and I thought it would be fun to share some! Well, I found our wedding album, filled with pictures of the wedding party, family members and the ceremony, but oddly lacking in a single good close-up of Tom and I together on our big day. So sad.
May I say...that wedding photography has come a long way since then.
(love how Instagram-y these photos look!)
(silk flowers...all the rage in 1983)
(three-piece cut-away tux...also all the rage.)
And we've changed too.
My rummage into our photos was like a blast backward through our family history. Wow...the babies, the jobs, the houses, the Christmases, the birthdays, the loose teeth, the school plays, the graduations, the shoulder pads and perms...all enveloped and shoeboxed and filled with a cacophony of memories and emotions that came tumbling out as each lid lifted. How could time have slipped away so quickly? And yet as I peered into the faces of us from years past, I was struck by just how much living - and loving - has taken place...often when we didn't even realize it.
This is us. This is our story. I found my journals in another closet, which told of my hopes and dreams for our future. Oh, they are sickeningly sweet and gooey..
.just as they should be. Back then, we talked about growing old together and having kids and grandkids - never really and truly imagining what it would BE like to be thirty years down the line. When you're 19 and 22, with a bunch of wishes and optimism, you can only hope and believe that it will turn out good. And pray that you'll be the ones that will
last forever.
Over the years, we've seen so many of our friends' and acquaintances' marriages falter. Good people, better than us, have called it quits. And I don't judge, because no one ever plans to be in a painful marriage, or have their partner find someone else and walk away. We have friends who have lost their spouses to death - and no one would ever choose that either. Each one wishes that "forever" had happened for them, and there is real sadness because of it. And so it is with deep, humble gratitude that we will celebrate today, realizing that there were never any guarantees. Just fragile promises to do our best to love each other each day.
And we are here, we are together. What joy! We've made a family and raised kids who have amazed us. Each day, each moment is a gift that we should cherish...even the disagreements and differences that pop up and make us so mad sometimes. At the heart of it all, there is love and commitment and friendship. And
romance. We still stay up too late talking, and then go to sleep excited to see each other in the morning. We're still really just those two kids - romantic dreamers who found each other and haven't let go no matter what life has brought.
Maybe we haven't changed that much, after all.
Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. I love you, Sweet Boy.
