Twelve years ago today . . . .

Twelve years ago today, a feisty, young, know-it-all redhead walked down the aisle of a beautiful church in a small town and pledged to love a funny, witty, honest, and loyal man "in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do us part." If someone would have told me 12 years ago that I would be more in love with Jon now than I was on our wedding day, I would have probably told them it was impossible. I felt that it was absolutely impossible to love someone more than I loved Jon that day. After all, the wedding song I picked was, "Only God Could Love you More." Boy, would that then, "know-it-all", have been wrong.

As each year passes I grow more and more in love with this man God has so richly blessed me with, the one God has made me "one" with. He has made my life a real-life Cinderella story; a true-life Prince Charming Jon is. Each year we are married it just gets better and better, and how I pray that will continue to be the trend.

I take no credit for our wonderful marriage, and although I am tempted to give Jon some credit, I really can't do that either. For it is truly our relationship with the LORD and our growing closer to Him that enables us to have the marriage that we do. For you see, I truly believe the more in love with Jesus each of us falls, the more in love with one another we fall. I really believe God designed us that way. Don't you just love that?

In honor of our 12-year anniversary I going to list 12 reasons why I love being married to Jon.

1. I love how he holds my hand at night while we fall asleep (most of the time I am asleep first *smile*).
2. I love how he will put on music, pull me close to him and dance with me (Jon would NEVER EVER dance in public, but he makes up for that by dancing with me at home).
3. I love his honesty, integrity, and loyalty.
4. I love that he inspires me and encourages me by both his words and actions to be a better person.
5. I love that he leads our family in prayer every night and we go to church as a family.
6. I love that he is the funniest person I know and can make me laugh until it hurts. I love that very rarely a day will go by without him making me laugh.
7. I love that when we fight or are distant from one another that I still get this pit and ache in my stomach, my heart still races, and I want and need to very quickly to make things right.
8. I love that when I am stressed or in too much of a "Go, Go, Go" mode, he will stop me and give me a hug, reminding me to "not sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff."
9. I love his playfulness, his laidbackness, and his flirtiness.
10. I love his relationship with each of our children. He is a wonderful Daddy.
11. I love that when I look at him I can see in his eyes how much he loves me.
12. I love that he loves . . . that's all.