It’s hard to believe that last Sunday Jake and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. Some days it feels like we’ve been married a week, and some days it feels like it’s been forever. I spent Thursday through Sunday at a spiritual retreat and was only able to send about one or two texts a day to him to say I love you and to check on the kids. My heart skipped a beat when I first saw him Sunday evening when he came to pick me up. My weekend away was exactly what both of us needed as a refresher to both of us individually and to our marriage. Things have been so busy and stressful lately, that it was amazing to have a reminder of how much we love each other and to have our spark reignited.

I’m so thankful that God knew exactly what he was doing when he chose Jake to be my husband. Through the years we’ve grown so much, both separately and together. We’ve brought God to the center of our marriage and family and let him lead us. We’ve learned to communicate, lean on each other, and be each other’s advocate. We make each other laugh (actually my abs are sore today from how much we laughed together last night) and we make each other cry, in more ways good than bad.

In the first few years of our marriage I prayed God would shape our marriage, and though we’re still a work in progress, we’re a pretty good team. Marriage is a gift from God and supposed to be a reflection of his love, and we don’t even come close to that goal, but we try.

He is the hardest worker I know, and never complains about the long hours he puts in. He never stops striving to make our families dreams come true, and as I sit here in the field entrance with a sack lunch watching him pick his first field of cotton, I am beaming with pride and gratitude.

And even better, I know that when he comes in the house tonight after bedtime has come and gone and the kids are sleeping, that I can expect to be met with a bear hug and a kiss. Then I’ll listen as he goes in and kisses our babies and quietly prays over them. These six years have brought us trials and challenges, but there isn’t anyone I would rather face them with.