Lucky Number 13

My Quatro,

I find it humorous that today is the day that I am sitting down to write this letter to you.  Life has kind of whizzed past us this past month in a blur of vacationing, travelling, parenting, exercise and life.  Gosh....it just never slows down!  I wouldn't have it any other way, but I am having to realize that timeliness on these blogs is not my strength any longer.  Still, I wanted to acknowledge our milestone and be sure I wrote this letter to you.

This year, I have several friends who are celebrating their 2nd or 5th or 7th anniversary.  Few are celebrating that special 10 year mark.  We aren't old (we really aren't) and yet in someways I now see us as the old married couple.  We've been around a while and have done a lot of life together.  I suppose that is the reality of marrying young.  Last year was hard and amazing because of IRONMAN.  I will forever be  awe inspired by how sacrificially you gave to help make me one.  This year has shaped up to be challenging in all new ways as our girls grow and I step away from the rigidity of IRONMAN training.  One thing I am eternally grateful for is that no matter what, you still keep choosing me and we still keep choosing each other.

Life isn't binary, and its not stationary and its not easy or fun all the time.  Its messy, and cluttered and complicated.  That's what makes it special and beautiful and worth doing.  We do messy and complicated well.   If there is one thing I am extra proud of us for is keeping the big things big and the little things small (like my traffic ticket).  We don't ever let the "stuff" of life, the unexpected trouble, derail us.  One thing is for certain, I got you babe and I know you've got me and we serve a big Jesus who's got us both.

You and I are in a beautifully sweet and exhausting season of life, and here at mile mark 13.1 it would be easy to put our relationship on auto pilot and just phone in the next few miles.  Thanks for running the race with me and navigating all of life's beautiful chaos.  I know more than ever that life will never be easy and that many more trials will be headed our way, but I will wake up every day and love you again.

You're still the one I want.