flashback friday: celebrating five years

We're celebrating five years of marriage today!

I use to think our five year anniversary was soooo far away, but boy has it flown by at lightning speed.

8.16.08

Besides the day Cade came into this world, our wedding day was the best day of my life.

Every time I look back on this day, I just smile. It was our dream wedding and with the help and love of family and friends they made the day absolutely perfect. 

Pretty sure Chad had no idea what he was getting into when he married me.

Let me explain. I'll try to be quick! ("Try" being the key word)

For those of you who don't know, for starters...my dad passed away from a sudden one month before our wedding. July 6th 2008. I sat there in tears writing thank you notes for wedding gifts along with thank you notes for funeral flowers, food, etc... It was one of the happiest, yet devastating times of my life. Yeah, talk about giving a whole new meaning to "bittersweet". We began our journey together in some of the worst of times. Chad was my rock through it all.

After my dad passed away, unfortunately there was a whirlwind of drama with my stepmom and with my Chad being an only child, my sister and I became POA/caretakers of our sweet papa. (My grandmother passed away a few years earlier). He lived next door to Chad and I, so there were so many nights LifeLine would call us at 3am saying papa had fallen, and Chad jumped to go with me to be at papa's rescue. He was also by my side visiting Papa when he was in and out of nursing homes. Chad cut his grass, took his trash off and accepted much more responsibility than one could imagine would come along as "newlyweds". 

Later, he was by my side as our papa lost his battle with cancer. We've endured losing five close family members since we've been engaged. FIVE funerals. FIVE valleys we've had to hold hands and walk through together. One was Drew, Chad's cousin, who was suppose to be a groomsmen. So we lost Drew, a groomsman, then my dad. Y'all, I was beginning to think we were cursed.
{if you'll notice in the last picture, Chad is wearing a t-shirt under his tux. That's because all of the groomsmen changed into tshirts with a picture of Drew and his life motto, "Living the Dream"

Through all of this, I fail to mention how unbelievably supportive Chad has been as I struggled to launch my business. I opened Sugar in April of 2008, daddy passed away in July and we married in August. Can you say chaotic? There were years of tears, struggles and months with no paycheck. I took a huge leap of faith and blindly handed it all over to the Lord. I did whatever it took to get my business off the ground and as always, GOD WAS FAITHFUL! So was my sweet husband. He helped me through it all. 

Last, but not least...(nope, I'm not done)...when our first "dream came true" as a married couple and we found out we were pregnant in November 2010, our hearts were overjoyed and we set out to make plans for a new addition. However, as you know, God's plan is sometimes a whole lot different than our plans so once again we held hands, shared tears, and went through another valley as we endured a miscarriage. Side by side. Chad was my rock through it all. He is one sweet yet strong man inside and out. He is a good husband/dad and I have his precious parents to thank for that.

I didn''t say all of this to reflect on the bad, because with all of this said there has been tremendous GOOD and blessings that have come from this. Also if you know us, you know we are a couple who loves to laugh and loves to have fun so honestly through it all the past five years have also been a LOT of fun! Yet, in those times of "Why's" and "How's", I truly believed that God makes everything happen for a reason and had a plan for us. We faced challenges that most couples face way later in their lifetime, but our thoughts are that God was just laying the foundation for a rock solid marriage. Every single thing we've went through has only made us stronger and more of a "team". We have a love for each other now that is far more than the love we had when we said "I Do" on August 16th 2008. 

Life is not always easy. Sometimes it's brutal. Yet I am so thankful God gave me a partner to help me through it. I've known Chad for nearly 16 years, been together for almost ten and I can honestly say there's no one else I'd rather "do life" with than him. With a whole lot of love, a ton of laughter and putting Christ at the center of it all - we know the past five years is just the beginning.

Blessed and excited to see what is in store for us next. God is good!