10 Years

Matthew,

For 10 years we said yes – yes to each other, yes to our commitment and yes to the idea and action of combining our dreams and hopes to create something we can both be proud of.  We created a marriage and partnership that isn't perfect, but it works for us. It's peaceful and fun, and it's the place we both lean into when the world around us becomes too chaotic. We decided that it takes 100 percent from both of us to make our family work. We decided to be a team. 

We created a little world that we filled with the people and the things and the memories we love. We created something that started so small – just the two of us and our dreams – and slowly filled it with others. Some of those people were already family by blood or marriage, but most were friendships that transformed into family. And then we became so lucky to add a baby to our world - a miracle girl conceived in a season of despair and blind hope. What we have created in 10 years – our little family of 3, then our larger family and community – is beautiful. I am so grateful to have this little part of life that we can call our own. We are so lucky to belong to each other. 

We have had our hard moments too. I know there have been times when we’ve been in the thick of a struggle, or a season of feeling disconnected and the idea to just stop, or quit, or say no, feels like the easier choice. But we never made the easier choice. We said yes over and over. And that's something. Something worth taking a moment in front of everyone and saying, "We did it. We made it. We said yes for 10 years and we still love each other and like each other and would still choose each other again and again."

And I would choose you again and again, every day, for the rest of my life. I love you and I like you and I’m thankful that you are my partner, my lover, the father to our child and my best friend. Cheers to a decade and cheers to the many more decades of doing life together.

Happy 10 baby. We made it.