I am no marriage expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been happily married for nearly 8 years now and in today’s world, that’s saying something.

A happy marriage is not easily won.  It takes a lot of arguing and make ups, lots of patience and surrender, lots of prayers and tears.  But if you can weather the storm, however long that particular storm may last (sometimes years), something really magical happens.

I am in a phase of my marriage that I realize how much Brady and I have grown together in love.  There is evidence of this all over the place, in small and big ways.  It’s in the way he brings me drinks in the middle of the day to keep me going and show his appreciation for my hard work at home.  It’s in the way that he knows my heart and never questions my intentions.  It’s in the way he loves our girls, especially in the ways they’re like me – even when those ways aren’t the easiest to deal with.  It’s in the way that he is my sounding board, and has my back on everything.  It’s in the way he cares about things I care about, when he certainly wouldn’t care about those things without me.  It’s how he finds joy in my joy, excitement in my excitement, pain in my pain.

We are busy raising our family right now, but we are so in love with it.  The things our girls has of his, makes me love him even more.  The busy schedule can get daunting, and the disciplining and rearing of the children can be taxing, but we see these little beauties as the best extension of us and of our marriage.  They make up the parts that together we never could.  We enjoy these babies of ours together – because they are just that, ours.  They are the sum total of our love, and my goodness they are exquisite.  Sometimes I’m not sure if they’re the steam that keeps this love train rolling or the other way around, but it’s my favorite part of this life.  I love loving them with him, and I love loving him with them.

Sometimes life gets in the way and these little love miracles are hard to see, but yesterday I was reminded.  We’d had a stressful morning and got into a heated argument before he was rushing off to work (never a good time to bring something up).  We took a breather, licked our wounds, and in about an hour I was done being mad at him – and I actually missed him.  So I hopped in the car to bring him his favorite swig drink to work as my apology for being sassy that morning.  Except I got half way there and he texted me, “Where are you?” He’d had the same idea and was headed home to bring me a drink.  Ha!  In that tender moment, I realized we had really made it in love.

Every fight, each argument, every miscommunication made right had lead us to this very place.  I love this man undoubtedly, unconditionally, overwhelmingly.

And he loves me right back.