Nine Years

June 19, 2013

Filed in: God, Life, Marriage, Thoughts

Today is our nine-year wedding anniversary!  Being married to Rob is amazing…it’s a beautiful thing when you have a partner who you can talk freely with; share your dreams, fears and thoughts with.  It’s awesome to share your life with someone who loves you for you, doesn’t judge you, draws the very best out of you and wants the very best for you.  Someone who laughs at your corny jokes and all the inside jokes you create too…laughter is the music of life so when you have someone you can always laugh with and take in the amazing adventure of life with, you know you’ve got something special.

my go to adventure partner!

my go to adventure partner!

my preferred person to be ridiculous with.

my preferred person to be ridiculous with.

Strong marriages don’t just get to be strong…the strength of a marriage (or any relationship) is tested through the difficulties and trials they endure…during those times and especially as the result of those times.  What’s left after the trials and difficulties?  Bitterness? Love? Appreciation? Sadness?  What is it?

One thing I learned in pre-marital counseling was to always fight fair…Inevitably, when trials come and arguments arise, will you fight fair?  Will you keep on topic or will you bring something up from a year ago that has festered inside of you.  Will you slam the other person with names or will you treat them with love, even though you are so mad you could scream.  Married couples will argue, but I’m glad I can say I feel our arguments are few and far between; of course I’d be lying if I said we never had an argument.  And, at the end of every single one of our arguments…Every. Single. One. We are hugging each other, forgiving each other, laughing, and moving on.

It sucks when you have an argument close to bedtime…b/c we don’t go to bed angry.  That’s a rule. We never ever have.  But, I remember one time this year…after Reagan arrived…I was so, so tired, and I thought “well, I guess this is the first time we’ll go to bed angry.”  And the argument was totally my fault, through my exhaustion I just got irritated and took my feelings out on Rob, out of the blue.  He was hurt…I hurt him.  But he pursued me…he was not going to let us go to bed angry, and I’m so grateful for that.

This is marriage.  Pursuing your spouse, even when you don’t want to. Loving them.  Talking to them and working at your marriage.  This is how marriages are built and how they are strengthened and how they make it to 60+ years.

Those verses in the Bible are true…and they are read at almost every single wedding.  I hope that we always live them to one another…

I Corinthians 13:4-8
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Love. Never. Fails.

Want to know why love never fails? B/c God is love, and God cannot fail.

We decided when we were approaching our one-year anniversary that we’d do the traditional gifts…and years one and two (paper and cotton) we each got something for the other person…but on year three, we decided we’d start picking out the gift together as a way to really celebrate and make each anniversary more memorable.  So throughout our house you can see the gifts we purchased together for our anniversary.  Year three was leather, so we splurged on our Restoration Hardware couch…this was probably the thing that pushed us to picking things together b/c we eyed the couch for a few years.  So our tradition continues and the gift for nine years of marriage is pottery.  Rob and I painted some pottery last night and we decided on his and hers garden gnomes!

 

Rob is very serious about his gnome.

Rob is very serious about his gnome.

My polka dotted gnome. She also has creepy eyes.

My polka dotted gnome. She also has creepy eyes.

The final product!!!

The final product!!!

Pottery reminds me of God.  God is the potter, we are the clay, and He molds us into what he wants us to be.  I think of all the molding God had done over the last nine years in our marriage.  Shaping us, refining us, moving us in one way or another.  All that shaping and molding has brought us to where we are…nine years, happily married and adoptive parents.  It’s a painful process to be molded, but the end result is beautiful.  I am so thankful for the nine years I have spent as Mrs. Wurzel and I can’t wait for what the future holds.

Happy anniversary to us!!!

comments +

  1. Jill Rees

    June 19th, 2013 at 12:34 pm

    My parents have been married 67 years. 67!! The love between them, even after all this time, is amazing to watch. And believe me, they had their moments. Like the time my mother didn’t speak to my father for 3 months, and hid it so well that we 3 kids never even knew it. “Ask your father to….” was her favorite saying during that time. (She just told me about incident a couple of months ago) Here’s to your next 58 years Anne Marie and Rob! You can do it!!

  2. Lucia

    June 19th, 2013 at 12:50 pm

    Happy anniversary! Love your blog. God bless you guys!

  3. Thelma

    June 19th, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    You two are truly a blessing and an inspiration to so many couples. The best thing is that you both love and seek God in your life–like you said, God is Love and He cannot fail you when you keep Him first in your life and allow Him to mold you and your family. Congratulations on your 9 year anniversary!!

  4. Beverly Sukie

    June 20th, 2013 at 2:42 am

    This is beautiful, Anne-Marie. Happy Anniversary to you and Rob.

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