Good morning, everyone! Welcome new and old readers. For our home town friends and out of town family, here is your most recent newlywed update. I am terribly sorry that I have been slacking in this department of my posts. Life is happening full force and I am trying to stay in the game.
Have I told y'all lately that I adore my precious husband? I don't think I have so consider this post all about my main man, newlywed experiences, and life lessons from Jesus.
I may not be the best wife, cook, student, or friend, but I have snagged one of the best out there. I am so thankful to be the wife of this handsome fella! This post won't be as sappy like my giggle box post but it will be heart felt. I am sure y'all are all missing my wifey confessions anyway. I know this post is text filled but I hope you will read it in its entirety.
This is a post that I potentially knew I could be writing and honestly had no desire to draft many, many months ago. I have had a little time to come to terms with fleeting change during this season of spring. While change is a wonderful thing, I think it is one of the hardest things we seem to do as humans. It is hard to embrace change and let our old ways go. We are stubborn, headstrong individuals and for the most part set in our ways. We are creatures of habit and not very open to change once we have our minds set on something. As most of you know, I am a planner of everything. But, sometimes begin a planner can come back to kick you in the butt. The Lord works in mysterious ways, y'all. Without a doubt I know Jesus has been working on me and my OCD planning ways.
If you have been reading for a while you know I post often on marriage as a commitment, not a contract. I feel super strong about honoring my spouse and the covenant the Lord created for those who are "one" in Him. Should you have read the post I made last Monday you will remember I alluded to some change in our marriage that contained both good and bad news. Ironically, this Monday I confessed how much I Am A Planner and all the missteps it is causing in my life. Even though I plan for the expected, there is no way to plan for the unexpected.
Almost two weeks ago our little newlywed world was rocked and shaken when my husband came home and immediately called to me saying, "We need to talk." before ever getting all the way into the front door. He had a smile a mile wide on his face but looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. I never know how these conversations are going to pan out because they typically do not happen often. Quite frankly, I was not prepared.
Tony has been given an opportunity (good news) within the company he currently works for to be part of an on-site job at a plant for the next 6 months to 2 years (very bad news), three hours away (bad news) from where we currently live in another state. Meaning, instead of him working 5 minutes from home in an office facilitating and engineering electrical aspects of designs, he will be assisting the implementation of these designs as they are being brought to life during the construction phase. It is actually an awesome experience and we are thrilled for the opportunity, professionally. We are thankful for this new experience and look forward to the many doors that may open in the future for him. Since he has no current dreams of pursuing a Master Degree, he is really excited to see how things function outside of the office. Professionally, this opportunity could not have happened at a better time.
When it comes to our marriage, we were totally not as prepared as we thought. We quickly have become so enthralled with our blissful newlywed life. For those of you who are new readers, here's a quick recap of our love story: We dated for almost 7 years before we got hitched. 5 of those 7 years we dated long distance. Now, when you get married you immediately think "Goodbye, long distance. Hello happily ever after!" Wrong. We have been married almost nine months and are tackling a whole lotta change in newlywed land. Being married and "doing life" with your husband long distance is very different than dating your boyfriend long distance. We are officially ending our first week separated today. (And they all said? Amen!). For now we are long distance marriage partners for the next phase of our newlywed chapter, which is both exciting, saddening, and scary all at the same time.
Unfortunately, I am staying in Birmingham and plan to continue living life as I normally do keeping up with our home and school work. Tony will revert back to long hours, college life drive thru meals, and traveling non-stop in order to fulfill the duties outlined for his new position. As any wife would, I ache for him through this chapter of change. I worry for his safety on the roads so often. Ultimately, it breaks my heart that I cannot be there everyday to provide for him as a wife should. Even on the days I run out of time and energy and have to "make" frozen pizza for dinner for us, it still beats eating dinner alone by a million times. Just being together and doing life together makes a world of difference from day to day.
I am SO extremely proud of Tony Harper. I support him 110% and am thrilled he finally is able to do something that has been a dream for the past few months. He has worked so hard through the past few years and I am so blessed to have been here to share the ups and downs of life together. I love sharing in his joy and growth and I anticipate great things for him. He is so passionate and determined when it comes to what he loves. Incorporate his ridiculously good looks and superhuman intelligence, my husband is unstoppable. He truly is my hero and I am SO blessed the Lord saw fit to pair Tony and I together so many years ago. I honestly do not know what my life would look like without Tony. As far back as I can remember, he holds a place in every single memory.
I am not going to lie or sugar coat things and tell you I was pumped for this little season of change as soon as I heard about it. Actually, I felt as if I could cry, scream, and puck all at once. Flattering, I know. I only saw the negatives, not the positives. We had many plans for the coming months for our marriage and now everything has been put on hold.
Like many new Brides, I had this picture perfect image of what our first year of marriage would look like and let me tell you, boy, I was wrong! Do not get me wrong, I LOVE marriage. I feel as though it is the best blessing the Lord can bestow upon your life. Not only do you get to love, learn, and serve as one, but you start to give more than you anticipate receiving. You toss selfish desires and strive to provide the best for your better half.
I am blessed because of all we have been through, all we have worked for, and all Tony's job provides. While I can be stubborn and think of all the time we are missing out on as newlyweds, I have decided it is best to let life take its course. Why should I dwell on the "why now" of our situation when so much can come from adversity? There are many other spouses who have it worse than us.
It took a few days of prayer and petition to get to this point of understanding but I know the best is yet to come. I am choosing to let the Lord take the reigns on this one y'all. I am putting the planner down. He knows what He is doing although my plans looked darn good highlighted on paper.
Life is here. Life is now. Life is fleeting.
We are living in the moment and it feels glorious. Instead of planning weeks in advance, we take things one day at the time and I must say that it has really been a lot of fun (weekends are the best! You can see our little adventure last weekend here). This may sound selfish but I think many of you ladies will agree with me: I love that Tony and I get to share some of the most beautiful times together in this life. I love when it is just us taking on the world one day at a time. From the little conversations at 1AM to those glances across the room at each other when we are out with friends, being in the same state 24/7, and just simply doing life together is one big blessing right after the other. I am not gonna lie, I am going to miss these little things but praise the Lord for Facetime.
Since we are no strangers to long distance, we have never truly took the time we spent together for granted. If you are married, I am sure you may be able to relate to how tough it is to watch your husband leave and live life separate from you. While it was tough at the time, I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to experience long distance once in our relationship for five years. Now I feel as if we can tackle this little season head on even though this time our circumstances are different.
Have I told y'all lately that I adore my precious husband? I don't think I have so consider this post all about my main man, newlywed experiences, and life lessons from Jesus.
I may not be the best wife, cook, student, or friend, but I have snagged one of the best out there. I am so thankful to be the wife of this handsome fella! This post won't be as sappy like my giggle box post but it will be heart felt. I am sure y'all are all missing my wifey confessions anyway. I know this post is text filled but I hope you will read it in its entirety.
This is a post that I potentially knew I could be writing and honestly had no desire to draft many, many months ago. I have had a little time to come to terms with fleeting change during this season of spring. While change is a wonderful thing, I think it is one of the hardest things we seem to do as humans. It is hard to embrace change and let our old ways go. We are stubborn, headstrong individuals and for the most part set in our ways. We are creatures of habit and not very open to change once we have our minds set on something. As most of you know, I am a planner of everything. But, sometimes begin a planner can come back to kick you in the butt. The Lord works in mysterious ways, y'all. Without a doubt I know Jesus has been working on me and my OCD planning ways.
Almost two weeks ago our little newlywed world was rocked and shaken when my husband came home and immediately called to me saying, "We need to talk." before ever getting all the way into the front door. He had a smile a mile wide on his face but looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. I never know how these conversations are going to pan out because they typically do not happen often. Quite frankly, I was not prepared.
Tony has been given an opportunityWhen it comes to our marriage, we were totally not as prepared as we thought. We quickly have become so enthralled with our blissful newlywed life. For those of you who are new readers, here's a quick recap of our love story: We dated for almost 7 years before we got hitched. 5 of those 7 years we dated long distance. Now, when you get married you immediately think "Goodbye, long distance. Hello happily ever after!" Wrong. We have been married almost nine months and are tackling a whole lotta change in newlywed land. Being married and "doing life" with your husband long distance is very different than dating your boyfriend long distance. We are officially ending our first week separated today. (And they all said? Amen!). For now we are long distance marriage partners for the next phase of our newlywed chapter, which is both exciting, saddening, and scary all at the same time.
Unfortunately, I am staying in Birmingham and plan to continue living life as I normally do keeping up with our home and school work. Tony will revert back to long hours, college life drive thru meals, and traveling non-stop in order to fulfill the duties outlined for his new position. As any wife would, I ache for him through this chapter of change. I worry for his safety on the roads so often. Ultimately, it breaks my heart that I cannot be there everyday to provide for him as a wife should. Even on the days I run out of time and energy and have to "make" frozen pizza for dinner for us, it still beats eating dinner alone by a million times. Just being together and doing life together makes a world of difference from day to day.
I am SO extremely proud of Tony Harper. I support him 110% and am thrilled he finally is able to do something that has been a dream for the past few months. He has worked so hard through the past few years and I am so blessed to have been here to share the ups and downs of life together. I love sharing in his joy and growth and I anticipate great things for him. He is so passionate and determined when it comes to what he loves. Incorporate his ridiculously good looks and superhuman intelligence, my husband is unstoppable. He truly is my hero and I am SO blessed the Lord saw fit to pair Tony and I together so many years ago. I honestly do not know what my life would look like without Tony. As far back as I can remember, he holds a place in every single memory.
I am not going to lie or sugar coat things and tell you I was pumped for this little season of change as soon as I heard about it. Actually, I felt as if I could cry, scream, and puck all at once. Flattering, I know. I only saw the negatives, not the positives. We had many plans for the coming months for our marriage and now everything has been put on hold.
Like many new Brides, I had this picture perfect image of what our first year of marriage would look like and let me tell you, boy, I was wrong! Do not get me wrong, I LOVE marriage. I feel as though it is the best blessing the Lord can bestow upon your life. Not only do you get to love, learn, and serve as one, but you start to give more than you anticipate receiving. You toss selfish desires and strive to provide the best for your better half.
I am blessed because of all we have been through, all we have worked for, and all Tony's job provides. While I can be stubborn and think of all the time we are missing out on as newlyweds, I have decided it is best to let life take its course. Why should I dwell on the "why now" of our situation when so much can come from adversity? There are many other spouses who have it worse than us.
It took a few days of prayer and petition to get to this point of understanding but I know the best is yet to come. I am choosing to let the Lord take the reigns on this one y'all. I am putting the planner down. He knows what He is doing although my plans looked darn good highlighted on paper.
Life is here. Life is now. Life is fleeting.
Since we are no strangers to long distance, we have never truly took the time we spent together for granted. If you are married, I am sure you may be able to relate to how tough it is to watch your husband leave and live life separate from you. While it was tough at the time, I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to experience long distance once in our relationship for five years. Now I feel as if we can tackle this little season head on even though this time our circumstances are different.
Seasons come and go in our lives. It is the one thing that will always be a consistent factor even though it is one of the hardest things we adapt to comfortably. The way Tony and I embrace and manage change will affect our growth outcome in the midst of adversity in the months to come. The upcoming season can be a time of tremendous growth even when the changes are bittersweet.
Things will not always turn out the way I want and I am slowly beginning to feel more comfortable letting go of the reigns. While His plan is always better than my plan, it is hard to not get lost in life's circumstances from day to day. I am learning that life's circumstances are HIS plans. The trouble in adversity is truly okay. The Lord's unconditional love, mercy, and grace overshadows all that plagues the circumstances we face in this daily life. My dependence and trust upon Him relies all in how I choose to face adversity.
I am not sure how many of you have the chance to watch the Oscars. I unfortunately did not get the chance to sit down and see who won. Since I spend so much of my time chilling in traffic when some bimbo decides to text and wreck, I hear a lot of my news and celebrity gossip on the radio.
A few days back I heard some radio buzz that was actually geared towards the award acceptance speech given by Ben Affleck, which really sparked my interest. As soon as I got home that afternoon I went to Google and YouTube. If you did not watch or have no idea what I am talking about, you can see more here. During the speech, Ben Affleck said a few words to his wife that some were appalled at but many applauded.
A few days back I heard some radio buzz that was actually geared towards the award acceptance speech given by Ben Affleck, which really sparked my interest. As soon as I got home that afternoon I went to Google and YouTube. If you did not watch or have no idea what I am talking about, you can see more here. During the speech, Ben Affleck said a few words to his wife that some were appalled at but many applauded.
He said, "I want to thank you for working on our marriage for ten Christmases. It's good; it is work, but it's the best kind of work, and there's no one I'd rather work with."
I applaud him. I think this is a honest and beautiful statement not only about marriage but all relationships. I believe today's generation has a falsified view of marriage, yet the Lord intended marriage to represent so much more. Marriage is work. It is fun, rewarding work. I will be the first person to tell you that marriage is not all unicorns and daisies as it is portrayed by popular media. As much as I wish it was, there would be no joy in successfully learning, living, and loving with your spouse. While the butterflies flutter away, bliss fulfills the feelings of eager teenage excitement.
Happy Friday, friends! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thank you so much for reading. Sorry this was such a text filled, deep post. When I started this blog I promised myself that I would be sure to journal on the good, the bad, and all that fell between in order to look back at the hurdles Tony and I have jumped in the years to come. This certainly is a hurdle but I anticipate great things in the future. We appreciate your support, prayers, and love in this corner of blogsphere. I hope you will stick around for the rest of the roller coaster ride. :)
"Do what you can with what you have where you are."
As always, until next time- Happy Blogging!
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I am linking up today with my dear friend, Marquis over at Simply Clarke for Faithful Friday. I love Marquis and am so blessed to have found her in this big 'ole blog world. Her posts are always inspirational and her heart for the Lord encourages me. I would love to encourage you to visit her blog and show her a little love. Marquis also designs blog layouts over at Clarke Creative. Check out her website for all your make-over or a la carte needs.
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