yesterday we mini-celebrated our very first anniversary!  i am amazed at how fast the year has gone by, how much has happened.  it’s incredible to think back just this short year and see what God has done.

the celebration. cameron and i gifted each other with some sweet and thoughtful gifts. i got a new gadget (because i am always loving new technological complications to my life) and he got a series of books (some written, some photographic) that i have been creating for him over the last several months.  we had a lovely relaxing day (it worked out nicely that monday is our day off!) and then had a fancy-time dinner. dear friends of ours prepared a candlelit dinner in their home, served us the BEST steak i have EVER eaten, accompanied by the fanciest wine…and it was just amazing. they were SO gracious and hospitable and it was perfect!

the year. people say the first is a “transition year” and that it’s the hardest. i’ll agree. in the last year, we have moved (houses/apartments) four times, moved jobs/ministries three times, experienced completely different styles of leadership, undergone major financial changes, had some big faith-stretching experiences, moved church families, and started plans for my small business.  we’ve adjusted to inlaws and outlaws, family traditions and differences, and are learning to communicate (an ongoing project, i know).  it’s just been a full year, a hard year.

looking forward. “i’m looking forward to looking back” sings over the rhine…and i am.  i look back over the last year and at first, i see all my shortcomings and failures as a new wife! those are quickly overcome with some of the most excellent and beautiful memories we’ve made amidst all the changes. i’m looking forward to see how the Lord continues to shape and mold us into His image – it’s painful and beautiful. i’m convinced of this now more than ever: marriage is not meant to make us happy (though there are times when my happiness is unimaginable), marriage is meant to make us holy.  i’m looking forward -with a healthy amount of fear- to the things that will arise in the next year.  because if i know anything about my Lord Jesus, it’s that He is faithful.  faithful to shape us, faithful to allow us to come up against things that refine our personalities and relationships, faithful to provide for us, and faithful to live in and through us.  i’m looking forward to what my second year of marriage will hold….

“…and I am glad to think I am not bound to make the wrong go right; But only to discover, and to do with cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. [...] I will trust in Him, THAT HE CAN HOLD HIS OWN; and I will take HIs will, above the work He sendeth me, to by my chiefest good.”

~Jean Ingelow

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