9 years ago I was hoping we would make it through our first year apart at college.
8 years ago I was hoping we could work things out.
7 years ago I was hoping we could survive our 21st birthdays.
6 years ago I was hoping we could live closer.
5 years ago I was hoping we could finally graduate college.
4 years ago I was hoping I knew what I wanted.
3 years ago I was hoping for a healthy baby boy.
2 years ago I was hoping to find a house.
1 year ago I was hoping we would have another baby.
I was 12 years old when I met Jerek in Middle School...and I've had a crush on him ever since! Many ask up how we met, what's our 'love story' and our story is just that, a story. One that has ups and downs, good times and bad times. A story of heart aches and tears, but a story of triumphs and success. More importantly it's a story of two people that like to wear sweats and drink beer together, who support each other in every decision that they make and who love each other whole heartedly. Two people that can finish each others sentences, that know EXACTLY what the other persons Taco Bell order will be and will not judge if they sing Dora songs while getting ready in the morning.
I find myself so blessed that I get to wake up day after day next to you, the person that brought 2 kids into this world with me. The person that drives me crazy because he doesn't separate his shirts when he takes them off. The person that makes the most amazing meals out of random shit found in our fridge and the person who gives himself selflessly to his family because he loves us more than himself. I can only hope that these next 10 years are just as challenging, as exciting and as rewarding as these past 10 have been. Without you I'd be nothing, but with you I am everything.
Now that I'm done crying I will tell you what we did, or what we didn't do. We did NOT go to work, that's for sure! We DID take the day off work and it just so happen that it was a Monday and the boys went to daycare, major score!
So we dropped the boys off and ran to our Starbucks and grabbed coffee. And get this, we went INSIDE and SAT down and drank our coffee and chatted! That's funny right! Most likely unless you have children you will not appreciate how much we enjoyed those wonderful 30 minutes. We then scooted home and got ready to go to brunch. We headed to TOAST in Birmingham (we both agreed we like this one better than the Ferndale one, not really sure why!) Jer got 'the cure' which he aways gets (the man knows what he wants.) I on the other hand always get something different and this time I got the turkey brie and the butternut squash soup. I was nervous thinking I wasn't going to be able to finish it all. Welp, I was wrong. I basically licked my plate clean.
Last but not least, we went and got tattoos. Because that's what you do on your day off and you are celebrating 120 months/10 years of togetherness! This was actually the only thing we had really planned out for the day. We had been wanting to get tattoos together for a while now and the day seemed fitting.
I decided to go big and get two, or three, depending how you look at it! Jer and I got matching ones. Now some people might freak out and be like you know what happens when you get ink for your boyfriend/husband/partner. Rest assured, I would never get his initials, or name tattooed anywhere on my body. What we got was "I'm yours forever" in Arabic. We choose Arabic based on we loved the font/look of the scripture. Neither of us speak or can read Arabic so I relied on a girlfriend at work and she asked a friend of hers that speaks it. It's loosely translated and if you Google it, it comes up as 'you forever.' The whole purpose was we wanted something to get together, FOR each other. One day we will get married but being together for 10 years is a huge milestone. Although we have not been together for a consecutive 10 years it does not matter to us. (Please forgive the wonderful iPhone quality.)
The next tattoo(s) I got were arrows and these are for the boys. I had held off getting something for Tracen because I knew I wanted more kids and wanted to get a tattoo for each one. I got arrows for the boys because I love the bible verse Palms 127:3-4.
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in ones youth.
I got ones similar in look, but different as these boys are clearly just that. Plus there is room to add more if we get a little crazy and God wants to allow us to raise some more little hellions!
We then picked up those little guys from daycare and made some pasta and snuggled on the couch as a family of four, with so much love in our hearts for each other.
11.18.13
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