6

6 years ago I married the most amazing man... we were SO young. I was especially. We thought we knew what we wanted, thought we would sail through life blissfully because of all the love we felt. We were not totally naïve, we knew we would have bad days or hard moments. But we had no idea. We had a beautiful wedding day with A LOT of people involved, if we did it again I would make it far smaller and intimate, but we were young and that day meant the world to us. We honeymooned and had a BLAST! I would relive our honeymoon a 100 times it was that much fun! We came home, we found out we were expecting Averi. We were scared. We were excited. We were overwhelmed. We were overjoyed. April 21, 10 months after our wedding came our girl. We took a breath, we readjusted. Kevin took on a 2nd job, I worked 2 16 hour shifts a week to make it. It was a hard stretch. Just when it seemed to get easier we found out baby #2 was on her way. Sweet Sofie joined us 18 months exactly after her sister. She was a hard baby. But she made us stronger. We made some hard decisions after her birth. We moved into a small apartment then 6 months later to TN. The move was the best decision we could have made, and now this is home. But with a move comes adjusting and growing. We had no good friends in Murfreesboro, this made us closer then we had ever been. It made us lean hard on one another and God and rejuvenated our marriage. I started working at Vanderbilt. I LOVED my job but always was missing my girls. about a year after moving here we welcomed our 1st son. Reiter Michael. What a perfect addition! Sweet, Happy, easy. PURE JOY! I dropped to part time and we fell even deeper in love. This was an easy good time. Kevin started looking for a new job, graduated seminary and struggled with what he was supposed to do next. He worried about caring for us while also following Gods perfect plan. We started serving in CR together. I love watching him minister. We prayed and talked about what we would do next. Ultimately God placed a wonderful job in his lap that allowed him to still work from home and gave us the financial freedom for me to stay home. Me staying home has relieved SO much stress and given us both so much more freedom to enjoy each other and our family. I love it. Kevin loves it. We welcomed our caboose baby Fischer in April, the day after his oldest sister turned 5. HE is the perfect last newborn. It was wonderful to welcome him while celebrating his sisters birth. When she was born we were still getting to know one another, learning how to communicate, how to show each other love and put each other first. When Fischer was born I found nothing but comfort in Kevin. He knows how to love me well. He works hard to provide for us and care for me. He is wonderful. I am thankful God gave me a man that loves the Lord. Thankful that God has brought us on a journey over 6 years where we have failed and forgiven, where we have cried and laughed so hard we cried. I wouldn't change a thing. I am thankful for Kevin, I am thankful for marriage. I am thankful for our crazy, chaotic life. I cant imagine it any other way.