Here's to 365 days...

A year ago I was walking barefoot down a path towards my future husband... minutes away from vowing to spend the rest of my life from him.  What a year it has been indeed.  As Otha and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday (a day early- don't judge, things aren't open on Sundays), we reminisced about some highs and lows of our first year of marriage.

Some lows:
*Making the effort moving to Austin physically, emotionally, financially, etc only to turn around and move right back to Bryan/College Station.
*Adjusting to the reality of pregnancy after our passions were further stirred for adoption at Together for Adoption conference.
*First trimester = miserable.
*The first month of marriage feeling isolated, surrendering expectations, and lacking wisdom in the communication department.

Obviously our lows had purpose and turned out to be blessings.  Even first trimester being miserable... my hormones were working hard to build a baby despite the 24/7 nausea.  So we really don't have anything to complain about.  They were just tough times.

Some highs:
*God bringing us back to College Station (includes jobs for both of us, rejoining Com Church, financial relief)
*Adding another family member who we are so so so excited to meet!
*Honeymoon.  Seriously I think about sitting on the beach with my mango juice in Belize often.  Probably too often.
*Learning how to love each other well!  Our conversations have so much more grace, understanding, and patience than they used to.

This past year has brought countless tears and moments of frustration only to be outdone by even more times of laughter, thankfulness, and being overwhelmed at God's intricate plan that dominates my own.  In all honesty, I want Otha to be the "crazy one" in our marriage.  But the longer we are married, the more obvious it is that I am crazy and am in need of Otha's love, patience, and grace on a daily basis.  I cannot count the number of times that I am crying for a ridiculous selfish reason and Otha provides comfort instead of judgement.  He offers wisdom instead of pity.  God was not kidding when He created marriage to model the relationship between Christ and the church.  Otha has been a consistent example for me of God's outstanding, unconditional love- I cannot begin to express how blessed I am in this marriage.

God gave me a man who is consistent, honest, full of knowledge, encouraging, thoughtful, hilarious, passionate, and of course, handsome.  Really, I don't deserve a man with any of these qualities.  But God gave me Otha anyway.  Otha has this gift of understanding me when my words fall short and has insight to see beyond what I can perceive inside my own heart.  It's incredible.  He is also an amazing leader.  Did I mention that he is GREAT at making decisions?  But in a gentle way that includes me in all the decisions even though I am awful at making any sort of choice.  He genuinely cares about what I think and incorporates that into every decision- it blows me away.  I am so thankful to have traveled this last year of adventure and changes with Otha Graham!!

In Belize for our amazing Honeymoon!  

Celebrating our anniversary.  So my stomach is a little bit bigger than it was a year ago.  No big deal, just growing a human inside of my body.  

I dominated Otha with cake on his face.

Note the icing on my cheek.  Otha sought out revenge as we enjoyed eating our wedding cake top.  And yes- it was still delicious after being in a freezer all year.  

I think we should eat cake every anniversary.