Last weekend Stephen and I celebrated our 10thanniversary. Yes, I know our ACTUAL anniversary was in September…….almost 6 months ago, but life was crazy busy back then, we barely even made it to dinner let alone an overnight trip! So last Friday we took what was probably the very best rekindling and refreshing trip of our marriage. This past year has been a year of great blessing and great trial. I was feeling particularly exhausted. God has been so faithful this year in protecting our marriage. Although we faced the most painful and heart-wrenching trail and Stephen and I found ourselves more “welded” together as a couple than ever before. Walking through heartache with one of your children is heartbreak beyond compare and yet as we clung to Jesus, Stephen and I found our hearts united together as never before. We wanted to see our faith……genuine. Though no visible to us we want to……. love Jesus with every fiber of our being. We wanted the result …….praise, glory and honor to Jesus Christ.
We want to seethe salvation of our souls and the souls of our children.
In this you rejoice,though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
— I Peter 1:6-9
So last weekend as we left our kids in my mom’s very capable and loving arms, we drove about 3 hours to Richmond, not because of what Richmond has to offer, but because they have a Westin…….we have always enjoyed our stays at the Westin, and no, I was not paid to say that!! The 3 hour drive was perfect…….far enough way to BE AWAY, but not so far that all we did was travel. We started listening to a book by Jay Payleitner called 52 Things Wives Need from Their Husbands. It wasn’t a profound or even theological book,in fact we probably disagreed with the author more than we agreed with him! We would listen to one chapter,stop the MP3 and dialog about the content of the chapter (the audio length of each chapter was around 5 minutes, so we’re not talking long segments). But it sparked great conversation…..conversation about us, as a couple. Life in the “mommy trenches” sometimes renders me brain dead by 6 o’clock and I find that conversing with Stephen involves only immediate emergencies or mundane(important, but not every nourishing to our relationship). As you can imagine having fantastic conversation with the most important person in your life made those 3 travel hours fly by!
We enjoyed a delightful dinner……once we found a restaurant with less than a 1 ½ hour wait time……big cities on a Friday night, (even at 7:30 P.M.) equal very crowded restaurants! Neither Stephen or I are big alcohol drinkers……for the sake of full disclosure, until this weekend I’d never had an alcoholic drink! But we decided to venture out and celebrate……white chardonnay. That turned out to be the one and only “bust”of our weekend!! Let’s just say, I will continue to be a non-alcohol drinking…….water how I love thee. Wine must be an acquired taste!
Sleep is currently a premium, so being able to sleep all.night.long was blissful! And then to enjoy breakfast in bed…….the life of luxury!!
We arrived home so refreshed and more in love then ever!
taken at the Westin Richmond with the wall of water behind us
House of Smooches 