Year 9

Today KJ and I celebrate 9 years of marriage.  Last year I wrote down a few phrases that sum up our past years together.  When I woke up at 4:55 a.m. this morning (jet-lag anyone?) and thought about the date on the calendar, there is one thing that stands out to me above all when I look back over the past 9 years, and that is the way KJ Pugh has loved me.   

He has loved me with the same love God is using to change his heart, a love that has faithfully sought to know me and understand me, and do things that will serve me even when he doesn't understand the feminine mystique.  It's a love that has taken the form of cleaning the entire apartment and cooking dinner when I was working full-time.  Man, that spoke my love language.  

It's a love that, much against my will, forced me to sleep on the couch with earplugs so I couldn't hear Ella cry in the middle of the night, after 6 months of lost sleep.  I was losing my mind with exhaustion.

It's a love that, even in light of his own frugality, will say, "Why don't you go out and buy something?  It will make you feel better."  (A little long-standing joke of ours.)

It's a love that looks for ways to make my load easier, give me freedom and solitude, and make me smile when I'm overwhelmed by all the things I want/need to do, and there are never enough hours in the day for them all.   

It's a love that peruses my Pinterest board and finds all the places I've marked in France on Google maps.  He plans out adventures because he knows I love them.  And I love him, and I'm thankful for the grace of 9 years, for the persevering love of Christ that makes us persevere in love every day, some days better than others.  The days keep turning into years, and it is good.