5 Years Ago...

This is a bit late, but you know how the mind of a pregnant woman is...or just the mind of a woman for that matter. I saw a post from Jennifer who celebrated her anniversary yesterday and it sparked that oh so familiar thought that has run through my head on a consistent basis for the last couple of months, "You forgot again, Alison.". Oh well..that's life.

Five years....five years ago (plus 6 days), on January 3rd, 2004, I awoke to a dozen different emotions. These emotions were more than a female's typical daily emotions. They were feelings of excitement, fear, and everything in between. This particular day was January 3rd, a typical day for 99% of the human population. But this day was anything but typical for my future groom and me. That day was the day we'd both looked forward to for so long, the day we would join as one.

On that day as I walked down the isle (and got my train caught on a splintery section of the wooden steps going up to the alter), I did more than just get all dressed up in a white dress with a long train that I'd wear only once in my lifetime, did more than plaster on a smile as I walked down the isle when all I could think was "what if I trip and fall in these heels?", did more than say a few words in response to repeating after Darin's dad (the minister at the wedding). That day was about so much more. It was a day where I pledged my heart and life to my husband-to-be and to only him, a day where those words we spoke to each other from our uniquely written vows meant more than what words could have expressed, a day where I took a new name, a day where I left my family and cleaved to him, a day where I became one with the man who I would be blessed to spend the rest of my life with. That day five years ago was about new beginnings together, just as each day we've spent together since then.

Now five years later, that day still plays on my mind as though it happened just yesterday. I hope that doesn't change. I think it's God's simple reminder to me when I feel like things begin to become routine. Remembering that day and the meaning behind it always seem to give me a different outlook on who the man I share a life with is. And what amazes me even more is when I look back on our lives before we even met, when I look back at the stepping stones that were laid before both of our lives years in advance preparing us for the journey we would once share together. As I look back on my own life in the years before Darin and I married, I can see a clear path laid out before me, each step perfectly paved and prepared for me, ready for me to have enough faith to step in that spot.



Till death do us part....