three years ago today, my husband and former boyfriend of several years, entered the MTC for his mission to chile. i remember the emotions of that day well. a harsh contrast of strong sadness and strong pride, excitement, and happiness. exactly one year later, in my therapeutic way, i wrote a reflection of all my lessons learned in the past year, and reflected on how much i had grown and been blessed through the experience. some of those lessons included: Life is Hard; if I turn to God when I experience those hard things in life, he blesses me AND teaches me something (or many things); Putting God first always always always gives you blessings you didn't even know you needed; Listening to God, and taking that step into the dark when you're terrified, will always bring you happiness you NEVER could have planned for yourself; God is in every single, teeny, tiny, seemingly unimportant decisions in our lives and He can see the whole giant picture, and He does know what is best, and He does bring that honest joy to our lives; God sends angels into our lives; I can be a literal angel for someone else, and that's what life is all about, and I've never ever felt a stronger, deeper, better joy; My family is pure amazing-ness; and The gospel is real- My Heavenly Father's love for me is individual, and He cares about the smallest details in my happiness- The atonement is real- I've seen it work and change lives.-Jesus Christ loves me, and is my Redeemer.
so that year stuff sounds pretty tough to beat, right? :) reflecting back, i feel grateful that i had all those experiences when i did, and i know there was purpose. i experienced all that in the critical years of growth right before i would move on to other adventures. exactly one year after my reflection, on march 24, 2012, i was anxiously counted down the final days before drake was finally coming home from his mission to chile... and we had a wedding planned for just 8 weeks after his arrival. so, i didn't document a reflection, although through journaling and this blog, i captured a lot of my emotions.
now it's march 24, 2013. and i can't even believe that it's been a full year since the mission. wow. where did three years go?! i have learned a lot in the past year. a lot of different kinds of lessons. it's actually really cool when i look back and analyze and think about it. i can see how the first lessons were really foundational in me deciding who i was, and who i wanted to be. how i wanted to dedicate my life to living. they are the basics of the gospel, and me coming to accept the truthfulness for myself. i couldn't even begin to recount all the blessings i've received in my life since those lessons and answers. but now, i can see how the past year has brought me a new set of lessons. the kind that are built off of my testimony and foundation set from the years before. because, i got married :) and that comes with a lot of learning!
may 25, 2012 was the day i was sealed for time and all eternity to drake. what a huge, amazing, monumental day!
i learned about a true, everlasting happiness and love in the temple that day. i felt my Savior's love and proud feelings for us, and i felt more joy than i think i ever have in a single day. i learned a little more about God's plan for me, and as well as all of his children, and i learned how much real happiness living the gospel brings.
i also saw how much love and support we have from family and loved ones. i was blessed with an amazing extended family, and i gained a family equal in amazingness :) everyone worked hard to make our wedding day and reception beautiful, happy, and perfect. for example, my sister bailey made my cake. i basically gave her all the reins and she created this amazing beauty with the help of my cousin, nina:
i had grandmothers that each sewed me beautiful quilts, an aunt made me a clock i asked for, my other aunt took all our pictures, my parents delegated to the whole community to make sure there would be delicious food, and everyone worked so hard to make my day special. my love for my family grew so much through seeing their love and support of us.
the next day, we set off for las vegas, and spent the whole summer 9 hours from our family. my appreciation for family grew even more with the distance. but, those summer months were really great for drake and i to come together and become our own family.
a definite lesson i learned was: marriage isn't always the happy fairytale. it requires work. but, we are happy to do those things and make those sacrifices because it brings happiness to that person we love most. being a wife was a bigger transition than i expected it to be, and there was some kinks i never saw coming, but the efforts were there on both our parts, and now we have settled into a really comfortable and happy place. i have definitely learned about selflessness and sacrifice. i've learned about appreciating sacrifices in drake. and i've learned that love isn't always that movie-fairytale-portrayal. it's much more real-life and genuine than that.
one example that comes to mind when i really felt my love shoot up by leaps and bounds for drake was when i got kidney stones. it was not pretty, and it was not short-lived. drake ended up being the final word in going to the emergency room (we were at my parents house) and he was right there multiple times as i threw up from the pain in my back and side. he never left my side and he took amazing care of me. we were attending a funeral at one point, thinking i had passed the stone, but it hit hard in the middle of the ceremony and i found myself throwing up in a garbage can (before i realized there was no bag) and then in the sink. as i collapsed on the floor and tried to wait the pain out, drake disappeared, returned with a mop and bucket of cleaning supplies and cleaned out the garbage can with no bag, and the sink. it was dirty work, but he did it because he loved me. then, he laid with me on the floor, missing the entire funeral service until i felt good enough to leave. i was so grateful to have him at my side. i knew he loved me because of his actions, not anything he had to say or show off. and i learned how much love could strengthen through every day life. that is the real point of life. not living in a fantasy fairytale full of white horses and roses, but finding the magic in the every day things.
many of my experiences in the past year have focused on those things: family and love.
i see often how drake's missionary experience will bless our future family. i've never been as grateful for those two years as i have been since i've lived with post-missionary. what remarkable things it can do to a life! i love that our children will have an honorable returned missionary daddy to look up to, and i know we will be so blessed for it.
as i look back on the past year, i feel that it has taught me so much about family, the importance of family, supporting family, being there for family, and loving each other in a real-life love. i'm grateful for the past year and the huge milestones reached. i can't wait for the next year and the new milestones that will come up!
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