Fifteen Years

Fifteen years ago at this time, I was getting myself all dressed up for one of the longest anticipated days in my life. I met Aaron when I was thirteen years old and it didn't take me long to realize that he was the one I wanted to marry. It took Aaron a little longer to get his head on straight and realize that I was the girl for him instead of my best friend. But once he figured that out and started dating me, we had to wait only four long years until we were old enough and responsible enough to get married. Here I am at the tender age of 19, and Aaron at the age of 21. Don't we look young?

Thinking of my own kids getting married at 19 makes me want to curl up in a ball and slow them down on their fast paced race in growing up. Even though we were young compared to most people around us who were getting married, we were ready for that awesome step in our lives. We have never regretted that move!

My young looking almost husband. Hard to believe that in 15 years, half his hair would be gray and we would have 4 kids in our family and be leading an awesome church back in our hometown. 

The full group of wedding party and ushers. 

I was in college the year between getting engaged and our wedding and so most of the wedding planning was done by my mom over the phone with me. Most of our conversations went something like this:

Mom: "For your flowers, what are you thinking?"

Me: "Well... I like lilies. Find something you like with lilies and that will be fine with me."

Mom: "What about decorations in the church?"

Me: "I don't care. Find something that you like and I'm sure you'll make it pretty. Just keep it simple."

Mom: "What about food?"

Me: "Let's keep it simple. I like cookies. Crackers and cheese, maybe? Finger food stuff? I really don't care. Whatever you think sounds good."

Thankfully my mom was super organized and took my vague answers and kept our wedding tastefully simple, but beautiful. I told her I thought it would be fun to have fish in wine glasses in each window of the church. This is what she came up with. I actually love this picture the most out of all my pictures as it captures the simplicity of it with the beautiful view of the Iowa countryside out the window.

Fifteen years later, I'm more madly in love with my man than ever. I remember right after we were married, a friend at church told me that every year he was married, it got better and better. I couldn't fathom such a statement since I was so madly in love with my newlywed husband and couldn't imagine it any better. But now fifteen years later, I'm beginning to understand it. Our love has stood the test of life through moves, job changes, the births of our children, miscarriages, disagreements of all kinds, hilarious memories, quiet everyday moments, and everything in between. Through it all we remained committed to seeing our marriage thrive and flourish. And it's true, while I may have lost the giddy school girl feelings that was so prevalent in the beginning of our relationship, they have been replaced with something much deeper and more substantial. 

So before you all go and throw up with my sappiness, I'll tell you about our honeymoon. The week before we were married, I was sick and had recovered just in time for our wedding. However, I passed it on to Aaron. He started feeling bad the day of our wedding, but rallied with excitement and adrenaline to making it happily through the wedding. By the next morning, he was feeling awful. We had rented a little cabin in the woods for our honeymoon, so I drove us down while Aaron slept in the car. Once we got there, Aaron crawled from the car to the bed in the cabin. He was so sick with a raging fever - the kind that makes you beg to not be touched because having somebody touch you feels so horrible. Definitely not what I expected to hear on my honeymoon. :) So he slept for three days while I sat bored out of my skull in our cabin. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't raining the entire time too, so going out and enjoying the beautiful scenery didn't work so well. It was a rustic cabin, so there was no tv or phone or other forms of entertainment there. I found a pay phone in a nearby town as I drove around and ended up calling my mom on my honeymoon because I was bored and lonely. Probably not a call she expected! Aaron's fever finally broke and he felt somewhat well enough to make the trek into town with me to buy things to do together - a few board games, a coloring book, and a few other odds and ends. We also went fishing - Aaron sat shivering on the dock feeling weak and tired. After four days, we had enough of our less than romantic wedding and decided to come home a few days early. I was never so happy to leave that cabin as I was that day! We still laugh about the less than stellar start to our marriage. We figured it couldn't go anywhere but up. And it has!

Tell me something fun about your wedding day or honeymoon. It's the unplanned for things that make it unique, fun, and memorable.