Twenty Years

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Love is patient and kind. 
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
I Corinthians 13:4-7

Twenty years ago, my dad read this passage of scripture before I vowed in front of my family, my church, and my God to love Brian for better or worse. As 21-year-old babies, we couldn't have possibly realized the gravity of our vows; definitely didn't realize how wise this passage in I Corinthians is or how difficult it can be to live out.  At 41, I'm still learning what this kind of love actually looks like . . . in my marriage, in my parenting, life in general. 

On May 31, Brian and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary. Much like the start of every school year or on all birthdays, I ask myself how in the world we got to this place! I certainly don't feel older and wiser or more experienced despite the fact that twenty years of marriage, 41 years of age, and two kids in double digits say otherwise.

My parents spent the week with us so that we were free to spend 3 days/2 nights in Chattanooga. Brian came down with a tough case of gastritis the day before we were supposed to leave, but thankfully his antibiotic kicked in quickly and it did not slow us down.

Our hotel location was awesome, the weather was beautiful, and we struck a strong balance of taking it easy, but doing a little sight seeing and eating good food. Just like our honeymoon 20 years ago when we scheduled the day's events around the NBA Finals, we ordered pizza, picked up chocolate cake to go, and watched the first game in the 2017 Finals. Fun and nostalgic.

My clinical trial nurse is a foodie and used to live in Chattanooga so we followed her food recommendations almost exclusively. She did not lead us astray! We carved out time for a bit of shopping, visited an art museum, spent many hours reading and chatting outside two different coffee shops, walked the pedestrian bridge, and visited Ruby Falls. 

My 3 favorite things about this weekend: having the time to leisurely sit outside a cute coffee shop and read (we did this twice, and it was awesome), our dinner at Tony's Pasta (insanely delicious and so reasonably priced), and ordering pizza in our room and watching the NBA Finals.

The donuts were also pretty awesome.

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Love you, Brian. Let's do our best to celebrate another 20 years in 2037.

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