Has it already been one whole year since we got hitched? We made it through our first year with none of that yucky “your first year is going to be terrible” stuff! It feels like our wedding was just yesterday. I can still picture everything about that day so vividly. I can honestly say it was the absolute best day of my entire life. I don’t think I could have been more excited to marry the man God provided for me. John, I thought I loved you that day…

…but, I look at now, and think that today there is no way I could ever love you more.

Our first year of marriage has held more than I ever could have imagined! We’ve changed states, jobs, baby doctors (3 times, mind you!), and God has given us two babies in our short year together. It has been such a crazy ride! I mean, have I seriously had morning sickness the majority of our marriage?! Good grief! As many twists and turns that have been thrown at us in a year, I can honestly say I’ve always felt calm knowing that you were the man I was standing next to.

You have loved me above and beyond anything that I have experienced before, apart from the Lord. I really never knew that someone would love me, protect me, and provide for me the way that you have. God far exceeded in answering my prayers for you starting so many years ago. Even this whole week, leading up to this weekend knowing it would be our anniversary, I just couldn’t help but spend half of my prayer time in my devotion time, just thanking the Lord over and over again for you. I highly doubt I ever say it enough, but I am so unbelievably grateful to be your wife. I am so glad to be given the chance to support you, pray for you, and respect you as my husband.

And, one of the things I have loved the most about you this last year, is that you loved the baby we lost just as much as I did. You have never once made me feel dumb in some of things we did to recognize our baby’s life. I cannot begin to tell you how much it has meant to me that you would help pick up the broken pieces of my heart while your own was breaking. Both of our babies are beyond blessed to have a daddy that loves them the way you do. I will always be in awe of how you walked me through the darkest time of our life when we lost that precious baby.

Praying Ephesians 5:22-33 over our marriage every day, I can absolutely see in you how you love me like Christ loves the church. And, I can only pray that I can respect you to the magnitude that you love me. There is not any other person in the whole universe I would rather display the profound mystery of Christ with than you. I just pray we do it well.

I love you so much, husband! You are my most favorite person in the world and thank you for marrying me! I can’t wait to look back on this day and think “oh, how I thought I loved you then, but now…”