11 years ago today...

Melanie and Paul got married!

I always take a few moments on our anniversary to go through our wedding album, here are a just a few favorite pics...

I thought a little about posing for this photo when I created "Hand in Hand"...(and think about that fabulous bouquet whenever creating a flower card!) ;)

Here's a fun pic of us doing a cheesy conga, tambourine and all! Of course I am mugging for the camera, but that sweet, humble man is looking at me. I just cherish his adoring look! What a guy! This photo is very bittersweet because if you look closely, there is a tiny scar on my right wrist. It is the only evidence on my body of a horrific car accident (a burn from the airbag, I was broadsided on the highway, forced off the road into a pole, my car flipped several times before landing on the southbound side of the freeway upside down, I was alone and kicked out the passenger window to get out ) that occurred just a few weeks before.
People who saw the wreck said it was a miracle I survived, much less that I escaped the car without a broken bone, that I had an angel with me. In those milliseconds after the initial impact I had time to think it "DANG it!! I was supposed to get my wedding portrait taken next week!!!!" and then "I am REALLY not going to be getting married, am I?? THIS IS IT, " and then calling on the Lord again and again to save me as the car rolled over and over for what seemed like an eternity. Well. Here I am to tell the tale. It took awhile to get back in a car without shaking and several weeks for the soreness to go away, but, here I am four weeks later, married to the love of my life, a glowing bride, dancing, on our wedding day! Going through that made me truly appreciate God had so many plans for my future, so many special things He was saving me for... (two of those special things are sitting in the other room right now watching cartoons!) :)
And this last was probably one of the few very candid shots in our wedding album (sorry for the poor quality of both of these last pics, I had to take a pic of the pic!) One of my bridesmaids who got married just one month before we did (and I missed her wedding because I got in the accident I described above on the way there!) told me before my big day, "That ceremony and party go so fast. There will be SO many people there wanting to talk to you. Make sure the two of you take a moment to go talk reflect on how everything you've been planning for so long turned out, enjoy how beautiful everything looks, and how much you love each other." Well, that sounded like great advice to me! So we stole away to a corner of the ball room (but the photographer managed to sneak up on us even so!) Although I remember this moment I don't really remember what he was whispering to me exactly, but I am so glad she captured the look on my face and how I was feeling: overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude for all the blessings I 'd received and things to come.

Paul, I know what you won't read this, but for the record, you are such a gift to me. Thank you for your faithfulness and devotion to me and our family. (He's outside right now grilling our steaks!) You make me better in so many ways and it is an honor and privilege to be married to you. I've learned marriage is not finding the right person, its being the right person, but I think I was fortunate enough to get both: that right person who also does the right thing and keeps no record of wrongs. I am trying so hard to be that for you, too. (And I gotta brag on him just a little more, he is doing a wellness program through work and has lost about 12 pounds in the last 4 weeks! He looks GREAT and I am so proud of him!)

God bless, thanks for reading about my wonderful husband, have a great rest of your weekend!