Lovelier By Mal: Goin' To The Chapel. . .

WE'RE MARRIED!

Praise the Lord! On May 2nd, 2015 I married my best friend & love of my life.

5 Years Together. 21 / 22 Years In The Making.

He is the most amazing guy. He is the most loyal friend - the sweetest heart - the most generous & kind spirited - the cutest smile - the kind of deep belly on the floor laughing kind of funny - the most God seeking - the can't stop won't stop kind of worker - the deepest brown eyes - the best puppy daddy - and truly my other half. I could go on and on about how wonderful my husband is, but I'll just go smother him in love instead of boring y'all :)

Ceej & I are the bestest friends. No one makes me smile the way CJ Newton makes me smile. No one will ever know me the way he does. No one will ever know the purest joy & love I have for him. He's mine forever. Next to Jesus as my salvation, he is the greatest gift I have and will ever receive from God. You know that saying, "We finish each other's sentences." or "We finish each other's sandwiches." aka 'Frozen' ;) - we don't even have to speak and we just know - I absolutely love that. We laugh all the time and love at all times. The love we share is pure joy & comfort. We are constantly in our own little world - and I love every second of every day with him. AND I could go on about how in love we are. . . BUT. . .

We fight, we get selfish, we speak too soon, we get impatient, we get upset easily (ok that's just me), we forget to do important things, we get lazy, we do so many sinful things every day - and that's marriage. That's the part of marriage no one told me about. People told me it would be difficult at times and unbelievably amazing at times. And they were so right. BUT. No one told me that I was going to be my worst enemy. No one told me that I would be the reason marriage was hard. No one told me how selfish I was. I thought marriage being "hard" would be about finances, kids, and making time for each other. I didn't know marriage being "hard" would be about me being the grace needing girl that I am. Marriage has brought me SO much closer to the Lord - He has revealed so much about me that I had never known - and I've known me for 21 years now. Yes, He's shown me how sinful I am, but through that, He's shown me how much I need Him and that I desire Him above all else. The Lord has blessed our marriage in so many ways in the past 5 & 1/2 months - and every sinful moment has taught us so much about each other. And just when you think ugh... why would I ever want that? Let me share with you. . .

Even though marriage has shown me how sinful I am and my husband is. It is the very best thing in the world. Nothing nothing nothing will ever be as great as marriage. And that's Biblical. I am always with my best friend. He's never leaving. It's a constant laugh fest. It's a wanna stay up until 3am binge watching Game of Thrones kind of fun. It's let's have a serious conversation about how good tequila really is. It's filled with crazy love & romance. It's a bond that only a husband & wife can share. It's the Saturday morning coffee date. It's the how have you never dipped Oreos in milk kind of good. It's the best travel buddy. It's the yes, I'll watch all of Lord of The Rings with you - you're serving him big time by doing that one. It's learning how to cook and definitely having some failures - like shouldn't homemade pizza be easy - UH NO. It's the really good recipes that bring back such sweet memories. It's getting up 5 times a night for a puppy TOGETHER. It's cleaning a dog covered in poop on a Sunday morning TOGETHER. It's going to church to build community together. It's that constant encouragement. It's the smallest touch to the piggy back rides everywhere. It's COUNTLESS blessings like these that make up our marriage. I wouldn't trade our marriage for anything. Happy doesn't even describe life together. Life together is the BEST.

Here's some pictures from our wedding day - hopefully I'll have the video to share soon!