50 Years Past

I’ve just arrived back home from a wonderful day with my family, who hosted a great big party for my grandparent’s 50th anniversary. We traveled 2 hours east to where I grew up, the exact building I had my wedding reception. There were an absolute score of people who showed up to celebrate with us the wedded life of my grandparents. It was beautiful.

Tears fell from at least all the ladies eyes when my uncle sang “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” while my grandparents danced ever so slowly and carefully. I heard my grandfather ask my grandmother if she thought he ought to dip her, and she softly replied, “Oh, no, Gary, you’d have to pick me up off the floor!”

I watched her eyes drift into his. After 50 years, she’s still looking into his eyes with that certain magic which love seems to radiate off of us. She said after the party once we were back at her house that all those people there asked her over and over how Gary ever got a beauty like herself (after seeing a video of pictures I put together from their past) and she said, “If they only knew: It was I who got him.”

It was she who got a soldier turned alcoholic turned preacher turned diabetic in old age. And after all that baggage through out their lives, she’s still seeing an amazing blessing of a man brought into her life. She, my friends, has been the very personification of  “stand by your man.” And not that my grandfather hasn’t been just as faithful. After all, they have done God’s work together. But he is still a man, and as I’m a woman, I see my grandmother’s side of it much clearer. I have the utmost respect and admiration for their love – a true love that is honestly quite rare.

Today has filled me with much hope. I truly look foward to the next 47 years until I can celebrate like my grandparents did today.

An Anniversary Present

On December 22, we’ll celebrate three years. And this year, for a present, I convinced my husband into creating a YouTube channel together. We’re going to vlog about marriage from both his perspective and mine for a year. We probably won’t have a video out every day or every week even, but hopefully we’ll get a decent viewership. So, here’s a little pre-advertising for the coolest new channel on YouTube! We’re not sure what we’re going to call it or if we’re going to use our real names and locations and such. But whatever we do, we’ll make sure it’s trendy and fun!

I’m kinda hoping it serves a little more than just a fun outlet for me, but maybe even gives a good perspective on marriage for our generation. If you know what I mean, it’s often not looked at in a positive light. A lot of people seem to write it off as an agreement you get into in order to live a somewhat distant life from each other – like a contract. Hopefully, though, we can add a little spice to the current image our 20 something counterparts see marriage as and help them believe it can be as fun, adventurous, and romantic as it’s designed to be!

Be on the look out, and I’ll obviously post a link from here to the channel. First “episode” airs Monday, December 22!