year one

We spent our first anniversary in central Oregon in a cute townhome our friends let us borrow. Can you believe it's been a year since I was blogging about this? And this? And this? I hardly can. All month I've been thinking back to one year ago, and I've been filled with happy, happy memories. Our wedding day was the beginning of so much for us; it was a beautiful day, one that I look back on with fondness and yet one that I wouldn't want to go back to because that would mean leaving where I am now.

Taken at Eagle Crest 10.22.11. We got some non-goofy ones, but I really just love this one.



One year of marriage is hardly something to brag about, but regardless, it's changed me, a change that affects me in the ways I most need it, a change that is the best change, even when it's hard. I know more about stepping outside of myself to see a bigger or different picture. I'm learning that there's no such thing as the perfect wife or husband. I'm practicing how to give both Josh and myself the benefit of the doubt. I'm increasingly more grateful that this marriage is forever, because that means that I don't have to get it right immediately. Really, I have forever to get it right.

No one has a manual for the perfect marriage. Sure, you can reference self-help books, attend classes, and even hearken to prophetic guidance, but the fact is, marriage is a series of trials and errors, a risk that will pay off through listening, loving, and learning. If you ask me how I've adjusted to marriage after one year, I'll say that I take it one happy moment, one frustrated moment, one disagreement, one apology, one hand-hold, one minute step at a time. And I'm happy exactly where we are, just as we are.

So yeah, I'll always look at our wedding day with unabashed love and fondness.

But I'd so much rather be here, in my pajamas, enjoying a glass of sparkling grape juice and getting ready for some serious Modern Family–watching with my husband of one year.

We are more than ready to embark on year two.