12 years ago...

Twelve years ago today was a perfect day.  I remember waking up, taking a look outside at the beautiful blue sky and breathing a prayer of thanks.  I had a long soak in my parent's huge bath tub, and anxiously thought about every detail in the day to come.  My wedding day had finally arrived and I couldn't have been happier.  I was marrying my best friend, about to go on a honeymoon to Hawaii, and would then move into a house we had just built.  We both had full time jobs as electrical engineers, and life was looking great.

Twelve years later, I am a very happily married woman.  We have had some bumps in our marriage for sure, but it has been the easiest relationship in my life - mostly due to the fact that Arvid is incredibly easy going and easy to please.  We have been blessed with two beautiful biological girls, and our amazing girl from Ethiopia. 

We had a fun family night on Friday night - we thought it would be fun to celebrate a few things at once...Mebira honoured me on Mother's Day and is busy preparing for Father's Day at school...we wanted to find a day to also acknowledge her birth parents, as well as celebrate that she has been with us for one year.  So we had our family's favourite supper (cobb salad), baked a chocolate cake, said a few words of thanks about Mebira's Wolayta Mom and Wolayta Dad and sang "Happy Family Day to us".  Then we spent the evening watching the first few moments when we met Mebira, followed by watching our wedding video.

What amazed me the most was to see how many people have passed away since that time.  A lot can change in 12 years.  However, with those sad moments watching those who are no longer with us we also had some fun moments.  We had an especially good time watching my adorable niece and nephew walk down the aisle - boy were they cute!  It was also heartwarming to hear the toast to the bride from my brother Ron, hear him sing a song, hear both of my brother's play their violin and cello, and listen to the speeches from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  We laughed at our slide show, as well as how cheesy the wedding video was - technology has changed a lot in 12 years, too.

Yes, we were younger, yes we had new, young love, but I am just as in love with my husband now as I was back then.  Actually, what am I thinking...I love my husband more now than ever.  I have come to learn so much more about him and appreciate his many amazing qualities.  He is hard working, smart, generous, easy to talk to, non judgmental, easy going, positive, God honouring, loving, and the thing I appreciate the most is that he is still my best friend.  We went from lab partners at University to partners for life.  I am truly blessed.

Happy Family Day to us!

This was us then...12 years ago! Sadly, I don't think anyone had digital cameras way back then...I scanned these in today instead.

We took pictures at the University - where we first met, became best friends and fell in love

 

I thought it would be fun to try on my wedding dress today for the first time in 12 years.  It fit all the way until it hit my rib cage.  I'd like to think that it's because I'm voluptuous now but it's actually because I think my rib cage expanded through pregnancy...and maybe a little back fat, too.  :-)  The flowers are a dried bridesmaid bouquet from my sister-in-law Angie's wedding.

Excuse the hair - I had just gotten back from an 8k run.  :-)  Don't I have a good husband to humor me with this?  And he was even hangry at the time (grumpiness brought on by hunger).  :-)