Remember When

About a month ago I decided I should really finish our wedding album scrapbook. I imagined it would make a touching gift for my husband on our anniversary. I pictured us looking through it and reminiscing about our wedding day. The anticipation of memories generally far surpasses the real thing.

A month has come and gone and so has our anniversary. I didn't finish the album, justifying my procrastination by realizing I was the only one who really cared if the wedding album was finished or not. We celebrated on Thursday last week with a quick trip to the coast and dinner at Mo's. It was perfect and wonderful to be together. Yesterday we both began to feel quite yucky in the afternoon. We planned on doing some shopping, but instead came home and napped. Last week the girls had the flu (don't tell me you forgot that story already) and it seems as though both my husband and I got the sickness just in time for our anniversary.

In the midst of stomach cramps and various unsavory symptoms, my groom groaned, "I imagined this day going differently." Ah, yes. 

So did I. Words from our marriage vows played through my head as we spent an agonizing, sleepless night wrestling with the flu, "For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...". It is so hard to be sympathetic when you need sympathy yourself. Neither of us feels much improved this morning, but life goes on. 

An anniversary commemerates a day. Just a day. An important, expensive one, where 500+ people witnessed our romantic candlelit wedding. But the real significance is what has occurred in the time since. I love my husband more today than I could have imagined 7 years ago. We married quickly and hardly knew each other beyond our twitterpated passion (more chapters of The Road to the Country coming soon). Now my husband has impressed me each step of the way as we grow and change together. I made the best decision of my life when I said "I do" and became his wife.

I was looking through the yet-to-be-completed wedding album this morning and thought I would share a few pages with you.

In the years since our wedding, three of our grandparents have passed away; my Great-Grandma Friesen, Grandpa Harv, and Grandma Peters. Also, children have grown up. My sister-in-law Julianna, our little flower girl, has easily grown 2 feet, passing my 5'10". And then there are the children who have come since -- Emma doesn't like looking at the wedding album because she isn't in it. It's lovely to remember the day, it was beautiful and special, but who we are now, whose lives we touch and are touched by, and who we love is the most important part as I remember when.....