NINE

Sitting next to me is a bag that's been packed for weeks. Nine years ago, I was packing a bag of a very different sort. 

Instead of swimsuits and sunscreen, now we've got nursing tanks and onesies.

Preettty sure if you would have told us back then that our nine year anniversary might include a trip to the hospital to have our third child we would've looked a little like this:

I mean, we wanted to have kids but that was like way far in the future, right?!? And three kids? That's not something that happens till you're, like, thirty, right?

Oh wait...

Seriously though, when I look at these pictures I can't believe how young we seem

Mom and Dad, what were you thinking, letting a couple of children get married like that? ;)

 This guy has been with me for pretty much every major life event since the fall of 2003. Please indulge me while I reminisce with old pictures :)

I read a quote on someone's blog the other day, where this lady's husband told her on their 17th anniversary that they had been 15 of the best years of his life. And that made me laugh, because isn't that just the truth of marriage? I mean, let's not try to pretend there aren't some rough times!

Our wedding and honeymoon were seriously bliss. Loved every minute of it. The years that have followed have certainly not all been as ridiculously perfect. That's the beauty of marriage right there though. The commitment that holds you together in the not-so-photogenic-moments.

It sounds soooo cheesy. But I can honestly say, I love him more now than I did that blissfully happy day in June nine years ago. We've grown deeper together. We've laughed together. We've cried together. We've thrown pacifiers at each other in the midst of extreme newborn induced sleep deprivation.

We are not the same people we were when we got married. We've changed. We've matured. And by the grace of God, we've done it together. I wonder what forty year old Amy will have to say about thirty year old Amy on our anniversary ten years from now?

She will probably be super envious of my pregnancy cankles ;)

Happy nine year anniversary, babe! I can't imagine my life without you in it. You are one of God's greatest gifts to me. Here's to many more!