My Life: Beautiful Chaos: 10 years & 2 kids later... And I still LOVE you.

To My Ever Faithful Husband & Father to Our Beautiful Children After 10 Years of Us,

Can you believe that 10 years ago today you asked me to be your girlfriend? 10 years! Let's be honest though, we probably could've celebrated about 4 or 5 months ago, considering we sure acted like we were a couple long before we made it official. I guess today we'd call that "facebook official."

I knew you were the one that day after the youth garage sale. I was only 16 then, but I knew. You were funny, and goofy, and I had such a great time around you. You were sweet too. A "nice guy," and while most girls don't fall for the "nice guys" early in life, I knew I had to have you!

If I hadn't been sure after the garage sale, the 12 Hour Blitz sealed the deal for me!! After that day, not only did I know you were a great guy, but I knew you had great taste in music too. Your "S1" CD mix melted my heart and I couldn't believe you let me listen to your portable CD player!! We made so many ridiculous inside jokes that day and even though I had wrecked my truck the week before, you managed to cheer me up, make me laugh, and forget about all of the "stuff" a 16 year old teenage girl stresses about (which by the way, does not compare to the stress of a 27 year old wife and mommy of 2, what in the world did I really have to stress about???) That was seriously one of the best days I had had in a long time. I knew that day we'd be good friends and little did you know that after that day I started praying every morning for our relationship to become more than just that.

It didn't take long for us to become more than just good friends. We soon became BEST friends and the more we hung out, spent hours talking on the phone, and made memories we'll have for the rest of our lives, the more I knew you had to be the one for me. We were just teenagers (you a sophomore and me a junior in high school) but I knew.

Everyday I felt like God was telling me, he's the one, Amanda, he's the one I made for you, but we stayed "just friends" for a longtime and that made me question Him. I was stubborn and impatient to the point that I tried to put things into my own hands to try to make "us" work and when that didn't work, it broke my heart. I now understand it was just God's hand on it all. He was us giving us a strong foundation to build on, so that if and when we had a simple disagreement, we'd have too much to loose if we broke up. (Typing this all out now brings me back... it's so crazy to think that we were together 2 years of high school and made it out alive! All the lingo back then was silly "gf, bf, break up, ask me out," it all seems like an eternity ago, but it was high school and God saw us through it.)

I'll never forget our first kiss (and I'm sure you won't either). It was a Monday night. My lacrosse game had been rained out. (You were my biggest fan by the way, at almost every game cheering me on. My Dad to this day will say he knew he liked you after your famous line, "she must be butter cause she's on a roll." [I'm seriously laughing out loud right now remembering that.]) We came back to my house and hung out with Matty G for a while. After he left, you had just a short time before you had to be home too (in time for 7th Heaven, of course.) We don't have to get into the details, but needless to say we'll never forget it.

It only took us about 4 months to finally make it official. The exact date (7.7.01) was just 1 short year (to the date) of my baptism (7.7.00) and there is no doubt in my mind that it was all in God's plan for it to work out that way.

It's been 10 years since that day and what a 10 years it's been together! In the beginning, I almost thought you were to good to be true. I was just waiting for you to break my heart. As time went on, you proved to me over and over again through your words and your actions that you would NEVER do so. While every second of the past 10 years has not been easy, there's not a thing I would change about it. We've had good times and bad, happy and sad, but there has never been a doubt in my mind that it's all been God's plan. He has showed me love through the love that you have been giving me these past 10 years. Thank you for allowing Him to use you to love me. Thank you for loving me when I'm a real pain in the butt. Thank you for providing for our family and never ever complaining about it. You are a true man of God and I could not feel more honored to be your wife. That God chose me to be the one for you.

Here we are now blessed beyond measure. We'll celebrate 6 years of marriage in November. We've created life, twice. We've got a little boy (who will be 3 in just 2 days) who melts my heart and surprise surprise, reminds me so much of you. And our little girl, while she's a little bit too much like her mama, she certainly has your sense of humor. What a joy it is to have you to raise them both with. You are there for us more than you should have to be. You do things for them that a lot of daddies wouldn't. They are so very blessed to have you in their lives and I am so very blessed to have you as a partner in parenting.

While reflecting back over the past 12 years that you've been a part of my life, all I can do is smile and praise God for putting you in my life.

I love you so much and am blessed that everyday you wake up and choose to love me too.

Happy 10 years!

Here's to the rest of our lives!

Love Always,

Your LITSBYFITB ;)