Rick and I Exchanged Letters

Some couples exchange gifts on their wedding day.  Rick and I exchanged letters.  

Right before I walked down the aisle, each of us received a letter from the other to mark the occasion.  Since then, it has been our tradition to exchange a letter every year on our anniversary.

Sometimes, there's a theme to the letter.  

Other times, it's just whatever we feel like writing.

Every year, we read all of the previous letters before we share the most current.  I know that traditional and modern society have a list of gifts it is appropriate to give: paper, clocks, bronze, linen, china, crystal, flowers, etc.  We tried following this on our first anniversary, but somehow the letters meant so much more.  Now, we don't even pretend that we're going to give each other anything.   Instead, we spend our money on something that will help us make a memory and...

we give each other the letter.

As we prepare to celebrate our anniversary next week, I went ahead and started looking for the letters. You'd think we would keep them in the same safe place, but they tend to move around from year to year.  This year, I couldn't help myself and started reading the letters early, all by myself.  

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Wedding Day...

"Anyway, you know I love you and we're only hours away from being married.  Just imagine life with your best friend..." -Rick

"So as we begin this journey together, I promise to try and never let you down, to always make you laugh, and to stay by your side until your dying day.  I will never leave you..." -Me

1 Year Anniversary, Theme: Top 10 Reasons I Love You...

"10. And last but not least, you're a hottie!" -Rick

"8. singing and laughing..." -Mary

2 Year Anniversary...

"Every day we spend together, I thank God for..." -Rick

"It feels me with such pride to tell someone that you are my husband..." -Mary

5 Year Anniversary...

"Now we bring this little wonder into the world after 5 years of marriage...with the love and caring that both of us show, we can make our family complete..."  -Rick

"We still laugh and sing and play!  I thought those things would end eventually, but they haven't."  -Mary

7 Year Anniversary...

"You truly do complete me and I cannot wait to see what our future holds..."  -Rick

"Nothing comes close to making this, what we have, seem anything less than extraordinary. Life with you is enough.  It will always be enough."  -Mary

The last sentence in my letter last year:

"I can't wait to see what this next year has in store."

Two weeks later, we found out I was pregnant.  Eight weeks after that, we found out we were having twins.

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I think the reason I cherish the letters so much is because they're the tangible part of our history together that won't ever let me forget what we've been through. 

When we wrote those very first letters to each other, we didn't have a clue about where life was going to lead us.  Come to think of it, we still don't.  The only thing we really know is where we've been and where we are.

We don't know where we're going... 

What I do know is that wherever I am going, I want to go there with Rick.

So, cheers to another year...
I see God in the letters that represent each precious year of my marriage.

Love,
Mary