Happy Anniversary...

TO US!!  I can't believe it's been 8 years already.  It seems like just yesterday we were packing up our stuff and making the move from Arkansas to Texasto start our married life.  My life has changed so much these 8 years.  I've grown up, grown deeper, grown more in love with Nick.  

When we moved to Texas 8 years ago we didn't know a soul here.  It was just us and we really had to lean on each other.  God blessed Nick with jobs that could provide for us and allowed me to go to nursing school.  He answered prayer by giving us a church we could grow and believe in.  He gave us friends that would stand by us and be our stand in family.  I was scared to death to move away from home and now, even tho it makes me a little sad to say, Texas is home.  

Nick and I met when I was 15 years old.  I had an instant crush on him :)  He came to my church with a friend of his and sat right behind my pew.  I remember seeing him and thinkging "I could never date someone like him."  He had a cool car, was gorgeous tall and had a great sense of humor.  We became semi-friends, I still had a huge crush on him and occassionally he would call me or hang out with our group.  I still didn't really believe I had a chance. About a year later, I had a 10 page note on my car...it was from Nick, saying so many things I couldn't even process.  I thought the letter was a joke.  Nick had spent a summer in a tent in New York working at a kids camp and had a lot of time alone with God.  Nick believed that God had showed him that I was the ONE for him.  I thought it was a joke, and not a very nice one...this boy I had had a crush on for a year was messing with me.  But he wasn't.  We began dating.  We rock climbed, rode four wheelers, watched movies, played cards (ERS till our hands hurt), spent time with our each others families, went to church, spent vacations together, and fell in love. I still don't see how I could have fell so young, but I did.  We were engaged by the end of my senior year in high school.  Looking back I know my parents had to be mortified!  We were just kids...but we knew. And I still know.  God gave us to each other.  It is all because of God we have this life together.  There have been ups and downs, but I've never doubted that this is IT.  We will always be a family and there is no greater happiness for me than that.   

Happy 8 years, Monk.