For my groom: You need to know...

If my heart's desires never happen...

If this ache - this longing in my heart - that I truly believe was Heaven placed, ends up not coming true...

If we end up as parents of just a blessed one...

If (Heaven, please, no) you get sick or severely injured...

If our boy gets sick...  

If we lose our home to some financial disaster...

If we never get that Mini-Cooper I've always lusted after...

If we lose everything we have, and everyone we've ever loved...

If all of my dreams {for us} don't end up coming true and we don't live happily ever after...

If all these things and more should be a part of our story...

My life is still blessedly rich.  Our life together is still abundantly rich with purpose, meaning and worth.  

You are still my greatest joy and the most prized gift I've ever unwrapped.

Every moment with you has brought me to places I'd never go on my own.  Places of me have been ripped to shreds, my core exposed, and my insides kissed with love.  The grossest parts of me have been caressed and held.  I've bled out wounds that still leave scars, and yet they're just scars now - leaving imprints of a story of grace.

You've done nothing to deserve love.  Yet, you've been willing to receive it for yourself, therefore you've extended it in powerful ways to others.  To me.

Sharing my life with you - specifically with you - holds great purpose and gives me great excitement.

Our marriage is beautiful.  As a whole it has a depth of rich mercy, love and acceptance.  Even in the hard times, the ugly times, the not-so-sure-this-is-joy times, it's still worth so much.  So. Much.

...I just thought you should know.

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Unwrapped *Gifts* of {Grace}...

...Seeing Grace, even at the expense of a loved ones own pain...

...Grace for my mom's life to be her own...

...letting God have his way with my loved ones...

...Seeing how *freeing* communicating can be, and how it leads to true living...

...music...

...the boy-man's truth telling...

...Seeing a bit of my mom's pain, and how I can't save her...

...the boy-man's anticipation for piano playing...

...opportunities to pray...

...lying on the couch at the close of day, next to my groom...