Thoughts on our first year of marriage

Well, we made it one year, folks! Go us! In all seriousness it has been a fantastic year and it went by so quickly. I can't even tell you how many people told us that the first year of marriage is the hardest. To be honest we didn't listen to it (mainly because I know that everyone has different circumstances). For us, this first year has actually been the easiest. See, we lived together for almost 2 years before we got married and before that, were in a 2+ year long distance relationship. That long distance business, now that was the hard stuff. It really taught us so much about communicating with each other and really helped us develop some great tools and routines that stick with us now. I will always look back on our "long distance days" and be forever grateful for how far we've come.

From day one of living with each other it's been a good fit. I don't have enough hands on me to count the number of people that advised us against living together before marriage. While I really do appreciate others' concern for us, ultimately Luke & I knew what was best for us. So after 2+ years of long distance and roughly 4 months living in the same city for the first time, we dove right in and bought a house together. It was the best decision that we could have made for us.

Reflecting back on this past year, I feel as though we hit our stride and found a place in each other that we're both ourselves and comfortable in. During our first year of marriage we made a lot of plans for our future. We made some home improvements. Luke took on a lot more responsibility at work. He also supported and believed in me when I wanted to take a risk and change jobs. We bought a new car. We traveled to some new places together. We basically kicked ass at life together.

We'd be ignorant to believe that life is always going to be this way. We don't know what the future will hold, or what kind of obstacles we'll have to face together. We will however, be grateful to look back on our earlier years together and be so thankful for the foundation that we're building.

Here's to many more great years ahead of us!

*And in true Holly fashion, I went ahead and ruined our anniversary by contracting bronchitis. No fancy dinner out to celebrate, instead we sat on the couch all day. Ha!!