Dan and I have been married for 5 years. I am in awe at how fast the time has flown by. As I look back upon the 5 years Dan and I have spent together, I can't believe it has really, truly been 5 years. How is that possible?
I remember our first year of marriage as if we just lived it all yesterday.
The first year we were married was so amazing.
I grew so much in that first year of our marriage.
I think we both did.
We lived in a very small one bedroom basement apartment. It was a place to call home.
We walked to school each day hand-in-hand. We would race each other up the hill to school.
Awe, I miss that.
It was a beautiful time in our lives.
We worked at night cleaning office buildings and a cafeteria. I think that job solidified our marriage. It really did. We learned how to communicate and work side-by-side.
We worked several other odd end jobs together. At the time, it was such hard work. As I look back on those memories, I do nothing but smile at the love Dan and I built together working so hard for our dreams. We had so much fun working out with each other too. We would run late at nights and do hundreds of crunches. Dan and I are both so competitive that it's so fun to work out with each other. We push each other to do our best at whatever we do.
We were called to team teach a class on how to strengthen our marriages. At first, we both felt the calling was a mistake. How could a couple, who has been married for just a few weeks, teach a bunch of couples who have been married for much longer than us, how to raise a family and strengthen their marriages? Then, we realized the calling was sent from our loving Heavenly Father just for us. It was then that we further strengthened our testimonies in our Savior. It was then that we learned how to treat one another as husband and wife sealed for all eternity. It was then that we chose how we would raise our family.
I was also diagnosed with Grave's Disease that year and told I shouldn't have children for several years after my radiation treatment. I was so sad. I felt bad that Dan had married me and I got sick. How was that fair for him? And now I couldn't have children for a few years. That certainly wasn't fair. I was young and naive. I was really hard on myself. Dan, on the other hand, was so sweet and loved me so much more for it.
Dan also applied to medical school that year. Watching Dan work so hard for his dreams really impressed me. He wanted nothing more than to become a doctor. It would be icing on the cake if he went to Mayo for his training. He was saddened that he didn't get into Mayo for medical school. It was then that he set Mayo as his goal for residency.
We moved to Nebraska where we made our home for the following 4 years. Although the past four years in Nebraska have been amazing and we've learned so much together, I can't help but marvel at how absolutely perfect our first year of marriage was for the both of us. It really was the perfect jump start to an amazing journey. It's so fun to look back on and see that Dan's dream of receiving his medical training at Mayo is coming true after all his hard work. It's also been so fun living the past five years as a couple and now being blessed with Heath. I can't help but feel like we are ending a chapter in our lives and beginning to write a whole new chapter now that we are parents.
I will forever look upon the past five years of our marriage and cherish those unforgettable memories shared just between Dan and me. But I am looking forward to this next season of our lives with so much anticipation now that we have a beautiful baby boy to add to our loving home.
