My version of Love...

I can't believe that Bruce and I have been married for 10 years.  We met and started "seeing" each other when I was 19.  I just turned 34....Wow, how times have changed.  When I first fell in love with him loved looked like long, romantic kisses and snuggling during the movies, paying two checks at Wagon Wheel so we could save $4 instead of just $2, making fish sticks and tater tots for dinner.  We finished college and began our careers as teachers and love began to look like phone calls in the morning and emails during the day, driving  just to spend the weekend together and then turning around to go home.  I love to look back at some of those emails I saved just to remember how simple life seemed.

 Then we got engaged and love looked like a handsome man standing at the end of a row of all of our family and friends.  It looked like trips together to Mexico, New York, Greece and many other places.  It was about just the two of us learning what it was like to live together and share each other's lives.  Love was good and we enjoyed our time together and our time apart.

 Then Madelynn came along and wow, how love changed.  I never knew how much I loved him until I saw him hold our little girl for the first time.  It was amazing.  Love was right there in our hospital room.  So love began to change again.  It looked like him holding her and watching football, changing diapers, and helping me feel good about my post-prego body, love looked like a big football player picking out little pink dresses for his tiny daughter.  A hug when I just missed my dad so much I couldn't breath.  Love was all around us....

 As Madelynn has grown over the years, so has my love.  Love looks like a daddy holding his little girl's hand as we walk through the corn field or the parking lot.  Love looks like waking up early even though he is so tired just so he can spend 10 minutes playing, love looks like Friday night sitting on the couch watching Law and Order or Dateline or Disney channel even though she is in bed, love is getting to sleep in on Saturday morning because he got up with her or going to Wal-Mart by myself. 

Baby #2 is on the way and it amazes me how love is still changing all around me.  Just this morning he was walking around the house singing Doc McStuffins songs and I knew the exact episode that was on.  Love looks like a daddy playing castle on the floor or dress up with dolls, love looks like building presents for Madelynn, endlessly going through lists of baby names, love looks like helping me get her ready in the morning and sitting on the floor of her room as we pray as a family at night.  Love looks like a daddy dancing to silly songs in the middle of the living room.  Love looks like saving the last cold Diet Coke just for me.

This is not the love that you find in the story books or in romantic songs, but it is real, everyday love that makes me smile and cry and laugh.  Growing up I thought love was love.  Simple as that, but it is evolving with every step we take in life.  I am excited to see how love will change in the coming months and years.  I know that that love will always be there for me to count on.  It might not look like it did on dates when I was 20 but I know it will be strong and steady and always there to pick me up. 

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13