wedding vows.

I can’t believe that it was 4 years ago that we said, “I Do.”  For our anniversary I thought I’d share one of my favorite wedding week moments.

Wedding Week Tuesday:

Our last night before the festivities began, before our friends came in town, before we started moving so fast that the days would blur together in one big mash up of food and laughter and getting ready and talking and crying and did I mention eating(?). Kurt and I sat two wide in front of our computer to get our vows pounded out.  I’m sure we were both thinking ‘why oh why did we commit to write our own vows?’. After a long time of just sitting inspiration-less, I ran to our room and pulled out a letter. ‘His Letter’, the one that forever changed our lives.   Funny how after almost 6 years together he found that he could best express himself to me through written words.  Funny because this was my area, my way.  Funny that this letter would be the foundation of the vows we would write together and say to each other on our wedding day.  Funny…and somehow fitting.  The words I felt I overused during the bumps and bends in our relationship were the phrases that ran through his head as our relationship sat on the precipice one year before we got married.   These longings that flowed from my heart throughout our years together were the basis for the letter that Kurt wrote me to say, with things hanging in the balance, “I understand now…”   He had tears streaming that night at Flying Star as he finished ‘telling’ me that all he wanted was, “to convince [‘my girl’] that I now see so many things through her eyes.”  That evening still haunts me.  Words from his heart imprinted themselves on mine, or maybe it was the other way around…  It was one of the first times I felt I truly looked into his soul.  Revisiting this moment together, reflecting on the relationship we had and the one we had created from it, was an eye-opening and precious moment.  It was bare and naked.  It was taking an honest look back and feeling genuine gratitude that God could give such beauty and perfection from the former.  I knew my heart at moments in our relationship: hopeless, sad, uncertain, wondering if I would have to compromise or be flexible on the desires of my heart for my future husband and our wedding.  I didn’t.  I made not ONE compromise when it came to my happily ever after.  My expectations were exceeded.  My heart overflowed.  And from these emotions we poured our vows out on paper.  We laughed. We cried. We hugged.  We had one of those moments that feels like a glimpse into eternity.  God was good.  God is good.  This moment is tucked away in my heart.  Not much could compare.

Our Wedding Vows

I will strive to always trust you with my whole heart.

In all situations I will make your feelings my utmost concern.

I will work to remember and give you the little things that make you happy.

I will remind you often that I am in love with you, that you are a priority and that I choose you.

I will always try to relieve you- to be the one who calms you, the one who fixes things, and the one who you can rest with.

I realize that I have the power to change, I am willing to grow and change with you through every season of our lives.

No matter where our days take us, I promise I will always come home to you.

I offer you my heart, my respect, my service, my encouragement and my love…

I will be open to what you have to teach me, I will try to listen more than I argue and laugh more than I cry.

I promise to never stop planning our future, to never give up on our dreams, to never-never give up on us.

I will always trust that God is in control, I promise to encourage you when this is hard for you to believe.

I have been waiting for this day for my whole life and will never stop thanking God that he made you for me.

June 15, 2007

Of course some of the inspiration for our vows came from other places… for those of you who know me, I’m not much of a laugh out loud at jokes/videos/emails type of person.  This video however, pushed me from laughter to tears (a trademark move- if I get laughing too hard, watch out.  I have been known on many occasions to turn quickly from laughing hysterically into a bawling fool).   I am pretty sure that  my easy-to-laugh husband  loved me more in that moment of uncontrolled laughter.  Though it was a very serious ‘vow moment’, when we had to say “never-never give up on us.”  I seriously almost lost it every time 🙂