It has been 10 years…..

It has been 10 years since our wedding! I have to say this has been one of the nicest anniversaries  I have ever had.  It just seems like… it has been such a fast 10 years with so many things that happened! I was thinking of some of the things I have done in the past 10 years or that I have experienced. Here are just a few highlights!<p>

1. What it is like to live in a foreign culture (1997) I married a Russian, what did I expect?<p>
2. Being pregnant at the same time as your mom!(1997)
3. I learned what it was like to have a colicky baby 24/7 and how helpless you can feel when your baby is sick  (1998)<p>
4. Having a brother who is younger than his nephew and niece (1999)<p>
5. I was in my first car accident-  rolled our van in fog (1999)<p>
6. There are people in America that go hungry (2000)<p>
7. What it was like to have a broken bone (2000)<p>
8. How  to cook, clean, eat sleep, live without modern conveniences like water, roads, beds, heat and other such things…..Rubber boots  became my main choice of footwear and mud on your clothes was not something you could worry about! (1999)<p>
9. Remembering to not forget anything outside that could make a bear stick around and waking up to see he left us "gifts" behind to let us know he was by our front step!!! (2001)<p>
10. I had a recipe published in a Taste of Home magazine- Cranberry Slush Punch<p>
11. I requested Lemon Poppy Seed recipes from Taste of Home and received 1000’s!!! (Need any? 2000)<p>
12. I decided that being grown up means that you pretend you are, because no one really feels grown up, they just pretend they do……<p>
13. I discovered what fast labor was like- 1 hour 45 minutes is a little too hard on a body (2002)<p>
14. I learned not to judge people with mental illnesses. There is not an easy fix, answer or prayer that can make it all go away. <p>
15. I learned how to have a baby without my husband (2004)<p>
16. I learned that God can do amazing things with not much to work with! He provided us with food, paid bills and everything we ever needed, not usually early, but right one time! (2004)<p>
17. I learned how to serve others in volunteering.  <p>
18. Most of all I learned that hard times can really make you Bitter or Better, as my mom always said. We have to take the experiences we have and let them shape us. I found that people when faced with someone with hard experiences tend to pull away and go to be with the "happy" people because it is too hard and they are afraid it may rub off.  I want to look beyond that in the next years of our marriage. I want to let the hard things build me and the good times multiply! <p>

God bless you all in your marriages! I pray that you can take each day one step at a time!