City Market's card selection was slim at best, but a few attractive fronts caught my eye. Reading the words inside, however, knocked them all out of contention.
The post office was sure to deliver (no pun intended). I've bought several well-worded cards for you there...but, no luck this time.
Buena Vista Drug has the widest assortment, and their cards are always on sale, but you, my love, are worth more than a bargain-basement card. And while it's true I bought you a pair of cowboy boots as your combined Christmas and anniversary present, I wasn't about to buy you one of those odd looking western cards with the generic words Happy Anniversary written on the inside.
So, here is my five year anniversary card to you, sweetheart. I hope you don't mind that I put down these words in a blog post...hey, that kind of sounds like an Elton John song! Life is wonderful now that you're in my world, and I couldn't help sharing with everyone how proud I am to call you mine.
Dreaming - Something I found hard to do before you. We've sure done a lot of dreaming together, especially in the last couple years. How many times did we drive by 29315 County Road 359 before is was ours? I'm glad it was vacant, otherwise walking around peeking in the windows would have been weird...and most likely gotten us arrested.
I loved when you would back the car up to the detached garage, and we would sit there together gazing at the beautiful log home, visualizing the space inside, planning where the furniture would go.
Then there was the day we called it our home, and we walked hand in hand over the entire property. Overwhelmed with emotion, I had to stop and ask you to pray and thank God for His generous blessings. On that warm, summer day, we both felt strongly God's great plans for our future, and we still do today.
Sacrificing - Robert James Taylor, Jr., this year you gave me an unexpected, extravagant, larger-than-life, unbelievable, self-sacrificing gift. The extensive, heated garage that came with our house was the answer to a dream of getting you working and creating with concrete again. The funds from the sale of the house in Pueblo West would get you the supplies and equipment necessary for a solid start. Then one day you told me you no longer believed the money was meant to go toward that endeavor, and you sat with me at our kitchen table writing out a contract guaranteeing me over a year of salary to pursue my writing - to continue to bring joy to our lives - OUR lives. That's what you wrote, and I know that's what you mean.
So, here I am, working on my writing all because of you and your willingness to sacrifice a dream of yours for a dream of mine. What means the most to me is knowing this is not my dream alone, it's your dream, too.
Believing - I have an amazing support system, but the way you believe in me catches me off guard in the best of ways.
You came home from work one day talking about a stack of boxes on someone's porch. At first I wasn't tracking with you, not sure where you were headed. Then you said the words I will never forget, placed a picture in my mind I can never erase, and sparked a hope in my heart that cannot be quenched.
You told me you saw those boxes and thought about the day we would have a stack of boxes on our porch packed with my first novel. Wow! If that wasn't amazing enough, you went on to say your vision was not hopeful thinking - you saw it, and it was real, and it was going to happen.
How much easier it is to believe in myself when you believe in me.
Compromising - This has taken on new meaning and dimension in our marriage this last year.
Because of our shared faith and love for the Lord and our desire to have Christ be the center of our marriage, we continue to become one.
I used to think oneness was a given. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NIV) We join together as husband and wife and we are one...no effort necessary for this to happen...just poof...you've arrived!
Because of this inaccurate, preconceived notion, I was often a detriment to our oneness. Thankfully, God began dispelling my misconceptions and unrealistic expectations one-by-one and showed me how being one develops over time. With each hardship, momentous event, resolved dispute, quiet conversation, and compromise.
Here are two examples how I've seen us compromising, demonstrating to one another through our actions how what's important to one of us must be important to the other if we are one flesh:
I need...well, maybe I really, really like...when the kitchen is cleaned up right after dinner. This helps me relax and go into the rest of my evening without the mess pestering me. A clean kitchen immediately after dinner wasn't on your list of important tasks when we first got married. For you, the mess could wait a while...possibly into the next day (gasp)! But once you realized how important it was to me to have this done, it became important to you. Thank you for doing this for me each and every night.
You read the directions for use on bottles and tubes and every owner's manual from front to back. The information is helpful and it provides important insight into getting the best results from the product and extending the longevity. You remember all these facts and are quick to pass them along to me (a person who skims and scans if she looks at them at all). When you first told me you read mini blinds should be in a open, horizontal position before raising them, I thought to myself, "I've been opening mini blinds my entire adult life without first putting them in a horizontal position, and I've never had a problem." Then I realized how grateful I am to have a husband who enjoys reading all this documentation, something I despise, and you are good to only pass along the most important parts. So, now I prepare the blinds in the proper way before I raise them. It's not hard to do, and it's so worth it because it's important to you. And, baby, I promise one of these days I will consistently squeeze all tubes from the bottom.
The thoughts keep coming. I could write so much more, but I don't want your anniversary card to have a word count equivalent to a novel!
You are my true love discovered along a broken road.
You are one strand of the three-strand cord that is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12b)
You are my partner, my lover, my trustworthy confidant, my friend.
You are my husband - I am so proud to say those words.
I love you.
Happy five-year anniversary.