“I’ve been clean for two days.”

I told Andy with wide-eyes and a-too-serious-to-be real tone of  voice. I’ve been sick with the worst sore throat since I was a preteen sick with strep and it seemingly knocked out any sort of regular caffeine craving. He knows me well enough to know the big deal that this is. We laughed at the strength of the language and he jokingly congratulated me for my short success, declaring he expected the regular craving to come back as soon as I was feeling normal again.

Three years into our marriage, these are the little moments I’m treasuring. We tend to be pretty serious and too easily burden ourselves with the realities of life, but this year, year 3, I feel like we’ve really learned to laugh together.

In year 3, we’re dreaming of the little ones that will someday fill our home. We’re thinking about the days ahead, when Andy will finally be done with school and how we’ll be bringing light into this world through a common vision and mission. In year 3, we’re dreaming of what that will be.

I’m still learning about what it means to offer unconditional respect to my man. Still learning to sacrifice and learning to give more, both to my spouse and outside of our marriage. Still learning how to protect and nurture our gift of marriage. Still learning His needs and how to express mine. Still learning how to say “sorry” faster (phew–that’s a hard one). Still learning how to surrender and ask for help in my most precious relationship with Jesus Christ.

Here’s us two, with such big smiles because we just finished laughing about how we were sneaking in our healthier/popped from home popcorn into the theater for the nth time as we were waiting for Iron Man 3 (I think I’ve seen more action movies in our three years of marriage than in the 20 years before, thanks to this guy).

Here’s to year 3 (5.29.13)