With This Ring...

Tomorrow we celebrate 14 years of marriage...

Walking forward, rushing really, a young girl is ushered to her destiny, to become his bride, to take her part in the melting of two becoming one, led too quickly by a father that left their home all those years before... No, he didn't walk out on me, but he walked away from his promise, his promise to remain faithful and true to his bride, my mother, and when things like this.... promises broken, become realities,  the affects have long reaching arms. My dad, though I love him still, has always been a "lets get things done" sort of a man, today was no exception, there was no slowing and embracing of the sacred, no tender moments or stopping to live and breath in the moment. It must have been hard for him as he walked me down the aisle that day to give me away for good, I was 18, just a baby really, and he was entrusting me to Ryan, just a boy himself. He told me weeks before we wed "I know he love's you, I can just tell" these words still ring in my ears, my dad's affirming words of the man... boy, my heart was set on marrying, on spending forever with. We walk fast and my heart is pounding, I'm nervous, I should have spent more time getting ready, curling my hair, I  think, do I look alright in my dress? can I make it through this without crying? what about Ryan? will he think I look beautiful? will he be proud to call me his wife?  Who gives this woman to marry this man? "I do" loud and clear states my father, he sits, and Ryan and I face the minister and listen to him speak of love before we turn to face each other. The tiny chapel is filled, it's August and it's hot, people are fanning themselves with whatever they can find due to a faulty air conditioner, I don't feel the heat. Our eyes meet and we are locked into each others gaze, we exchange our vow's that say that no matter what comes we will do this life together, we willfully bind our lives as one, forsaking all others from this day forward, for better or worse, for better and worse. We gave God permission on that hot August Day all those years ago to take our two souls and merge them into one, to make us one flesh. We said yes to a plan that was much bigger than we realized, we said yes to an unknown future, a future that God knew full well and still he knows and his plans are still good. With this ring we bind our two lives into one.  We kiss and we walk through a sea of clapping, smiles and tears, we make it outside and he says "what now?" and I break, emotions stored up now release and tears flow, my life, our lives have just been forever changed, all is joy. It has been 14 years since that first day, the day I took this ring as a symbol of the vows I spoke, the ones that were spoken to me, and I could probably count on two hands the number of days that have gone by without it on my finger. With this ring... I thee wed. I wore it then and though it looks a little different now, I ware it still, as a symbol that I am bound to another, til death separates us, we are one... Happy Anniversary Ryan, I Love you!

Genesis 2:24

 ²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.