Constant Love

If you can see my face, Tom is about to stick a HUGE piece of cake in my mouth.

Pictures of us together over our whole lives.

Just a cool picture.

Our Wedding Day October 8, 2005

This month Tom and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. On one hand, it's hard to believe that we've been married for that long. And on the other hand it seems like we've always been married and creating this life together. I know you've heard it all before, but I count myself to be one of the lucky people that gets to spend my life with my best friend. Gag. I know. However, if you knew us, and knew our history, you would understand that this has been a long time coming. We had to get through many things together and separately, to make it to the point of choosing each other forever.

Tom and I met when we were just 9 years old. Yup, that's right. I've known my husband for nearly 20 years! What a lucky thing, right? Anyway, it's a sweet story. My family and I moved in down the street right at the end of 3rd grade and soon after that, Tom's more social little brother was introducing himself to my little brother in our driveway. Strangely, I remember that day quite vividly. Tom was wearing his "Where the Cool Go to School" Kansas University sweatshirt. My first thought about Tom? I thought he screamed like a girl. Really, he did.

We were on swim team together during junior high school and high school. Through swim team and high school we became very good friends. He has been one constant in my life. We spent lots of time together attending some high school dances together, making Taco Bell runs, and Tom even came on some vacations with my family.

My point? We were friends. The good kind. The no matter what kind. Which was good, because after high school? I went a little crazy. Not the unusual kind of college crazy with drinking and parties. What I did that was crazy? I started dating silly guys and entering unhealthy relationships. I even got married. It's not something that I talk about often, because of the chaos that it reminds me of. However, I will stop short of calling it a complete mistake because during that time, I also got pregnant. And from that point on, I was forever changed. Becoming pregnant changed me so deeply, that I left the unhealthy, unsafe marriage not just for myself, but for my baby.

I'm sharing all of this because despite my silliness and unhealthiness Tom remained a constant. Maybe he wasn't present for all of it, but he was a constant nonetheless. Like a compass. A haven. The no matter what kind of friend.

Our relationship developed several months later. I had Lily. Having her changed me even more. I grew up the moment she was born. My life became bigger than myself at that moment. The maturity that came with having Lily, I like to think, prepared me for finally falling in love with Tom. I wasn't ready before that. I wasn't ready for a healthy, safe, amazing person like Tom before she was born. She is the reason I was able to be apart of a grown-up relationship.

We were married only a few months after beginning a dating relationship. Four months to be exact. Tom was working long hours on the road and I was also working. We had a lot of growing pains in that first year. It was stressful, but completely worth it.

During our four years of marriage, we've been through an adoption (Tom adopted Lily in 2006), buying a house, many home improvement projects, and the addition of two more people to our little family. I fall in love with Tom more and more as life goes on. I never, ever forget what had to happen to get here. He has always loved me for who and I am, before I even knew who that was.