It's been 12 Years

John and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this past week. Looking back, it was probably the least "celebrated" anniversary we've had yet, but still a great day in my eyes. He woke up before the birds, showered and got into a suit and tie, then took the young men and young women on a 3 hour trip to the Gila Valley Temple Open House and was gone most of the day.

I got up with him, packed him lunch, then whispered "happy anniversary". His response was, "Oh yea, it's today". Then he was gone.

With the house still quiet and kids still asleep, I climbed back into bed and the tears started falling. Not tears of frustration or sadness, but happy tears, tears of gratitude and complete peace. Gratitude for what a wonderful man he is and has always been to me, gratitude that he loves his family and he loves the Lord. And peace in the reality of our eternal relationship. Not just "till death do you part", but he's mine forever. And I know he shares the same feelings for me.

I couldn't be happier!

Upon his return that late afternoon, we celebrated our family's 12th birthday with a party. Our party started at the bowling alley with pizza for dinner. Then we returned to our house, sang "happy birthday to Us", and told each other why we loved our family. John and I expressed a few memories of our wedding day-the birth day of our family, and of the eternal significance of our relationship.

Then we opened presents. Can't celebrate a birthday without presents! Each of the kids opened up a bottle of snow cone syrup, then they all helped open a new snow cone machine. Perfect with the hot summer months upon us. Of course the kids were excited, and we had to try it out. Instead of cake and ice cream, we had snow cones for our birthday treat.

It made for a wonderful day. These past 12 years have brought lots of growth (almost 6 children), fun times, and of course challenges along the way. But I wouldn't trade them for the world!