1 Year and Many More to Come

 When you have a second chance at love you do things differently.  After Steve passed my main focus was raising my children. I would often pray that God would send me someone when the time was right.  Almost ten years later the timing was right. I was scared and  I questioned God often. While Brian and I had met almost 19 years prior, the time was not right. God had to put a few more pieces together for our worlds to collide.  

What started out as two people killing time during Covid with text conversations, it quickly became a friendship that turned into oh so much more. From the beginning we have been fully transparent with one another. This created a strong foundation on which we have built our relationship

From the beginning our relationship has come easy. I attribute this to us both having loved and lost. When you go through something so traumatic it changes you as a person and changes how you view the world.  You reflect deeply on how you would change things if you could and that causes you to do better. Love is not a feeling but a verb and you must show that love each and everyday. 

While this is not how we thought our lives would unfold we have embraced what God had laid before us. Steve and Debbie are brought up often. We share stories and memories and honor them. We truly feel blessed to love again and are so thankful we found each other. What a blessing it is to love again. 

Today marks one year since we said “I do”. It’s been a wonderful year growing together and making memories. Often times Brian will say “I love you”. My reply is simply “I know”. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t truly know how much he cares about and loves me. While we both know that one day one of us will go through the excruciating pain of losing again, we know that to love again is well worth what we may endure. 

Here’s to many more years of loving, learning and growing. 

The Next Chapter

 

While neither one of us thought this is where we would be, nor the plans we had, we are truly humbled and blessed that God decided to give us something we never thought was humanly possible.  The chance to love again. 

Months before we started to talk we both had resigned ourselves to the fact that maybe we weren't supposed to find love again.  We had a sense of peace about being by ourselves and stopped looking for someone.  God had a much different plan.  Reflecting back I now realize that He was preparing my heart for Brian.  It didn't take long for Brian to displace all my fears of why I shouldn't open myself up to someone to love again.  

June 25th was a magical day.  Our motto for the day was "at the end of the day the result will be the same...we will be married".  It didn't matter that the glasses he bought for this special day mysteriously disappeared, or the boutineer and corsage didn't get put on his parents, or the sound system didn't work for our final dance with just the two of us in the room. We embraced the moments.  We are so thankful for all of those who were able to be a part of our day.  Here are just a few pictures that our amazing photographer took to capture the day.  If you are in need of a photographer let me know, she is detailed oriented and will capture your special events perfectly.  

Losing your spouse and then being able to find love again makes you appreciate things on a much greater level.  We are looking forward to what God has in store for us. We are truly blessed.  

May the next chapter be honoring to what God has given us.