VALENTINE'S DAY

5 years ago today I said yes!! 

It was the first valentine's day we had spent together in the 7 years we had been together. There may have been one early one but that was all. He was about to go to Afghanistan for 2 - 3 months. We barely saw each other due to his RAF shifts and my teaching degree. I think we spend about one weekend every 5 together. It was a hard existence when everyone around had their other half on their doorstep but we survived.

Then he came to visit for the valentines weekend and said he was taking me out early that day to someone special. Now I had just come off teaching practice the day before and was shattered so the idea of getting up at 5am was not very amusing. I consequently moaned all the way to our destination! When we got there I realised it was the Peak District and we were going to have to climb in the cold before it was even light so I began to get a little more excited but still moaning at the early time!

That moaning stopped the moment he got down on one knee....

He apparently had some great speech to say and had spent half the night agonising over it still but when it came to it what he said was perfect. I naturally said yes....not 'ok I guess so' like I did when he first asked me out but actually yes! 

It was about 7:30am at this point so everyone we wanted to call got a VERY early wake up, apart from my sister Becks who was on a shift at the hospital and I interrupted her rounds to announce it causing her to scream and panic a few people! 

And now comes the soppy part. At that point in my life I didn't think it could get any better. But then I got married and our wedding day was amazing. It really was everything we had dreamed about and planned for. Yet still that wasn't the highlight because for me being married and living our day to day life is the highlight and it only gets better with time.

Of course I would forgive some of you for thinking we must have the perfect marriage for it to be the highlight, but really we don't. At times its easy and good and we love it. Other times its hard, there are tough points, difficulties to live with and times when we really don't act like a married couple! But those are the parts I love as much as the good times. Why? Well because that's teaching us to grow as a couple. It's exposing our sin and it's where God helps us to grow and develop. See marriage isn't about what you get out of it. It's supposed to be a picture of God's love for us. He loves us like a husband loves a wife and so our marriages should be that loving and self-sacrificial. Marriage is where we get to love and serve the other person, not ourselves.

That's hard. It always has been but that's what we are seeking to do. We haven't managed it but we are growing to do that and will spend the rest of our lives together doing that. Thankfully we don't do it alone, God is always encouraging and giving us the strength to do it. We can't do it alone.

So Andrew, although we are far apart on valentines day I love you. I said yes five years ago and three and a half years ago I made that a public promise. Today its still the same; I will love you with all my heart as long as I'm here on this earth, no matter what happens.

H