Three Years

Written 3/11/2011:



I cannot express to you the feelings I had when I saw my bride begin to walk down the aisle. Her hair was beautiful, her dress gorgeous, and her eyes a piercing blue that (and have continued to) memorized me. Standing next to her, with my hands shaking I made one of the most important commitments of my life, second only to my commitment to Christ:

I Joel, take you, Ashley, to be my wife and my friend, my partner and my lover, for as long as we both shall live. I promise to love you with an undivided heart, to forgive you when I am hurt, to be faithful to you and to believe in us regardless of the circumstances. And as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord.

Since I first spoke those words to my wife three years ago life has happened; some good, some bad but every moment just as real as the one before. We have lived in three different houses, and are getting ready to move into our fourth. Two cities, one that has been home and another that has felt far from it. We have laughed and we have cried. We have celebrated new life, and mourned great losses. And while I would like to write all of the sagely advice I have obtained in my first three years of marriage, I can easily sum it all up in one sentence:

“I’m sorry Babe; you are right.”

As we begin year four Ashley is twenty-one weeks pregnant with our son, Jackson “Jack” Andrew Wood. We are preparing for parenthood and anxiously anticipating the growth of our family. Jack will bring challenges to our marriage that I cannot even begin to understand yet. But I welcome the challenges because there is no one else I would rather face them with than Ashley, my bride, my wife, my best friend, and my partner.

It has been three years since I last sat in this building on a warm March day but I am still every bit in love my bride today as I was then.


Ashley,

I love you with all my heart, and I believe in us regardless the circumstances.

--Joel

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