10

"With you is my very favorite place to be" is what the card on my desk read along with a dozen red roses.

Today marks 10 years of marital bliss for T and I. Today, that word bliss-(Noun) meaning: 1. great joy or happiness 2. spiritual joy; heavenly rapture..... has a lot more meaning than it used to.

Our marriage didn't start out like those Cinderella stories as most do. I was 18 and he was 20. Our wedding day didn't start out in the beautiful church decorated romantically with roses and candles, with a guest list bigger than Texas.... Nope, ours was in my parents trailer home, a justice of the peace man I never met before with just a handful of relatives. I was about 35 pounds over weight, my parents were getting a divorce, I was marrying a man with two children, we were broke and both very very broken -hurting individuals. (sounds like a redneck hillbilly mess to me!)

Lets rem anise a bit shall we?

-T and I met through my mom (of all people) See, she had this addiction with Mexican food ...but not just any Mexican food...it had to come from El Chico's. Anytime we were to go eat out as a family, it was El Chico's, NEVER any where else. All the waiters knew her by name! RIDICULOUS!

One Friday night at the mall, my two cousin and I ( all single) decided to go eat dinner. To my extreme teenager happiness, we had a pretty hot waiter. We ordered, made small talk with him and talked about how hot he was while not present at the table. I must have ate about 5 bowls of chips and salsa and about 20 glasses of water so I and HAD to go to the pee! With great surprise, as I returned to the table.... I had to face horrible embarrassment!!! My cousins, (sneaky craps) had asked him for his phone # while I was away. BUT wait..it gets better. He was not "available", nope not at all. He was actually engaged to be married and his name was Jimmy- Yes Jimmy! Try finishing your dinner with knowing the humiliation that comes with that!

So...with that being said...and as I was saying earlier my mom loved El chico. One special, but normal weekend night she, my grandmother and one of 'the' cousin's decide to go eat. Well golly be dolly guess who was their waiter?! Uhmm uh, yeah you guessed it. So convenient!!! In light conversation, my cousin decides that it would be so "funny" to bring up me again. (I still to this day feel that was total payback!) They all laughed at the "funny" little story (you know the one where they asked for his # and he wasn't "available" while sipping on margaritas and eating about 10 pounds of chips and salsa! This is where it all began for T and me. How so you may ask?

Jimmy mentioned he had a brother that was single that night...........

'the' cousin in her head thinking: " uhmmm, well if he looks anything like you, I want to meet this guy"

....Waiter Jimmy- brings over more chips AND his brother who just SO happened to also be a waiter at El Chico's!!!!!

Waiter Jimmy: "Hey guys, this is Timmy, my TWIN brother"
Timmy: Hi, here is my # (while scribbling on paper).....tell her I'm available"

..... sooooo tickled pink and ecstatic..... they come home with this piece of napkin with his # on it insisting I call him.....and well the rest IS this 10 years that we have made.

God was not in our life in the beginning. He was there, but we were not faithful or living our life Christ like. We have been through a lot of really bad and terrible hardships. We brought our past hurts into it. Tiffany was in a horrible accident and almost lost her life at 18 mths old. Timmy's brother was killed 5 months later, he was in his 20's. We Spent 9 months fighting the court system/state for custody our oldest girls. Timmy had an addiction alcohol and I had an addiction to controlling everything. We had our beautiful son Ethan, then two years later the 7 year "itch" made it to our door step. By that time there was a lot of hate, bitterness and resentment, and un-forgiveness that was deeply bedded in our hearts. We separated for 3 months which brought enough craziness to our "home' and family to put us in a nut house. There were always people with opinions about could'of -should'of- would'of's ....but there was also people praying for us even when they didn't even think "humanly" possible it would work out. But God had other plans and His works in motion.

By His grace, love, and faithfulness, we were able to salvage our marriage ( and 9 months later we had Chloe Grace aka Woo)

God gave us hope. He helped us to break addictions, forgive, appreciate what we had, learn to love and be loved, and gave us healing. God's son, Jesus was offered to us so that all those chains could be broken. So we could be set free. So that Timmy could be saved, so that I could recommit my life to God and to Timmy as his wife, and so that our future on this earth would bring Glory to His name for what He has done and continues to do for us.

10 years is a long time but 13 is even longer. I'm thankful that everyday, whether I felt it or not was a blessing and that God never left us. I love you T. Not sure how or why you put up with me like you have and do, but God is love, so I guess that's a good enough explanation for me

<3 Happy Anniversary