My Prince Charming

Yesterday Ken and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  If I'm going to be honest, I should preface all of this by saying that one of my greatest faults is that I really lack the clarity to see all the blessings that God places before me each and every day.  And this was never so clearer than it was yesterday.  I am no Cinderella, but I have truly found my Prince Charming.  I can't believe how lucky I am and how much I take Ken for granted.  He had an entire day of wonderful surprises planned, but of course, I thought he had forgotten our anniversary since he hadn't really mentioned it at all.  (At some point months ago I told him I  wanted to renew our vows, but decided to drop the idea after it received a luke-warm reception.)

I was blown away by Ken's thoughtfulness and kindness yesterday.  Some of the "littler" things he did for me included dropping me off at a massage and facial, hunting down a VHS player so we could FINALLY watch our wedding tape (it had been sitting around mostly unwatched because WHO has a VHS player anymore???!!!), and showing up after the spa trip with a huge bouquet of flowers that looked eerily like my wedding bouquet.  But I was most blown away by his planning a SURPRISE renewal of our wedding vows.  He had arranged for some of our closest friends (and cousin Kyle!) to be at the noon campus mass.  I had NO idea that anything was amiss, thinking that a bunch of our friends were there to pray for a mutual friend who recently experienced a very sad loss.  It wasn't until the priest mentioned that "a very special family was at mass" that I realized what was going on.  There, in front of friends, some co-workers of Ken's, and also quite a few strangers and college students, we stood in front of the altar and repeated those words we said to each other ten years ago.  But this time we said, "I CONTINUE to take you as my husband/wife."  I was choking back tears the entire time and could barely get the words out loud enough for anyone to hear.  Standing there looking into Ken's eyes, holding his hands, looking down at his wedding band, I was taken back to that day we stood in the church right across the sidewalk and vowed to love each other through thick and thin.  And sometimes it has been thick.  And sometimes thin.  And sometimes exhilarating.  And sometimes infuriating.  And there have been bad times.  And good times.  And times when it has felt like work.  And times when it has felt easy and natural.  But no matter what, we've stuck through it together for ten years. Not only have I found someone who will put up with me and my impossible-to-please personality (and who will love me anyway), but I've found someone who keeps working every day, in so many ways, to show me how much he loves me, even when I'm too silly and blind to see it.  I am so so so lucky and look forward to many more wedding anniversaries to come.  (I better start planning my surprises for next year now!)

The Christmas before our first baby was born!  This is the earliest digital picture I have of us.  Before this, pictures came on PAPER!  Can you believe it?

Baby number two!

The once in a lifetime vacation we took to Costa Rica before baby number 3!