There's More Life

So there we were. 7 1/2 years ago. Honeymoon. Oahu. I look at this picture and remember how our only care at the time was how to snorkel over the coral reef without touching it because the oil from our skin would kill it. Our biggest decision was how to spend the next day: shopping spree of our lives or Ferrari for a day. Seriously! We were actually going to rent a Ferrari and drive around the island.
Our spontaneity...
Our naivety...
Our irresponsibility...
They make me smile.
What makes me smile the most, though, is that my 24 year old self thought life was as good as it could possibly get. I couldn't fathom feeling more love than I felt as I held onto Rick.
How could life get any better?

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Fast forward to 7 1/2 years later. Thanksgiving weekend. Rick and I help our 2 year old daughter ride her tricycle for the first time. As she puts her feet on the pedals and starts to move, we exclaim, "Go, Gabriella Grace, Go!"
You'd think she was moving mountains.
To us...
She is.

I love looking back and seeing how much the life I have has changed and how, in my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined where I'd be.
Hanging from our fireplace...
five stockings.
Hey, 24 year old self, did ya ever see that one coming?!
I bet not.
What's funny, as I mentioned before, is that I really thought life was as good as it could get.
It hasn't gotten any easier, that's for sure. In many ways, things are much more difficult.
More responsibility, more disappointments, more bills, less money...
But.
It's so much better.
It's so much richer.
Somehow, there's more love.
There's more time.
There's more appreciation.
There's more understanding.

There's more...
life.

For the past few days, I have just stared at those stockings. They bring me such joy. They remind me that the future is so uncertain and full of surprises. Who knows what I'll be thinking in 7, or 10, or 20 years from now as I look back on the pictures from this weekend. I can only hope that I'll still be able to say that life (even with it's rough spots) has continued to get better,
that I have more love than I have now...
even though that seems impossible.

Then again, I never thought life as I know it would be possible! Ha! What do I know?

What I know is that I see God in the 5 stockings that represent the life of each member of my precious (I almost typed little here...whoops!) family.

Love,
Mary