Happy Anniversary, Shane!

Today is mine and Shane's 10 year anniversary! We are spending the day together as a family and then tonight we are getting a sitter and spending the evening out. We are going to dinner at the restaurant we went to for our 1 year dating anniversary (and we haven't been back since so I'm really excited). Then we are staying the night at the same hotel and even in the same room where we spent our wedding night. It's going to be a wonderful evening of remembering old memories and making new ones! I love you Shane. Thank you for a wonderful 10 years.

In honor of our 10 year mark, I thought I’d list out 10 of the things I love most about you.

1. First and foremost has to be your love for Christ. It is out of this that your love for me, our children, and others flows. It is out of this that you are the man you are.

2. Your love for Christ’s truths. You are passionate about basing your thoughts and decisions on His truths and you love nothing more than getting to share these truths with others.

3. You are my teacher. I have learned so much about my God through you. You have taught me a right understanding of who God is. When I read things I wrote years ago, I am amazed at how theologically inaccurate and shallow I was. I see how much I’ve grown in my understanding of God and his truths over the years and I know this is because of your teachings in my life. (I look forward to growing in Him more each day with you.) Thank you for teaching me about the glory of God! Thank you for your patience with me and my lack of understanding so much of the time. Thank you for taking so seriously your role in being responsible for my spiritual growth and for seeing that I am taught Biblical truths. Thank you for sharing with me what God teaches you. I love you so much more for all of this!!!!!!!!!!!

4. You are such a wise and Godly spiritual leader of our home. You always seek the Lord in matters of our family and home. You seek to honor and obey God in all your decisions and so I can trust in you without worry because I know you have sought Him first before making a decision. What a beautiful example this is to our children too.

5. You are a man of humility. You’ll never know what an attractive trait this is to me! My whole life, the biggest turn off to me in a man has been arrogance. Thank you for being a man of humility and for allowing God to work that out in your life. I know you would be the first to say that you “mess up” a lot of the time. You have no idea how much God uses those times to make me love you all the more because in those moments you come to me or our kids with a humble heart and ask for forgiveness. This is one of the two greatest ways you show Christ to me.

6. You are a man of sacrifice. This is the second greatest way you show Christ to me. You always put my needs and desires and the needs and desires of our children before your own. This never ceases to amaze me.

7. You are a man of integrity. This is a truly rare trait to find in people. I am so glad to know that I can trust you with anything and everything. I am so thankful God has made you a person of integrity. I am thrilled to know that our children will be raised by a father that models integrity for them and desires to instill it in them.

8. You are such a hard worker. You have always sought to provide the best for me and our kids. You are a wonderful provider. I can never thank you enough for working so hard to ensure that I can stay home with our kids. I appreciate so much that you see the importance of my calling as a mother (in fact, you are the one who often reminds me of this). Thank you for believing it is important for me to be at home with them and for working hard to make this possible. I love your work ethic and am again grateful that you are modeling this for our children.

9. You are a wonderful Daddy! You love our kids passionately! You are such a great father and you truly love spending time with our kids. I love watching you play with them, sing to them, tell them stories, tickle them, wrestle with them, and entertain them. I also love watching you teach them God’s truths. Thank you for taking the time to love them and to “raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.” It is so hard watching them be disciplined, but I know you do it out of love for them and your obedience to God and I thank you for this. It is so tough at times, but you are diligent to stick with it. Thank you for teaching them to honor and respect me. Thank you for teaching Wiley what it means to be a man (and husband and daddy). Thank you for Lin-Chin!

10. Your smile and laugh (silent though it may be at times :). There’s nothing I love more than laughing with you!!! I think this will always be one of the most enjoyable aspects of our relationship. I am so thankful that God gave me a husband who I can laugh with. I love your sense of humor too. You can make me laugh like no one else. Our kids are so blessed to have such a fun and funny Daddy. Somehow you manage to get my quirky and goofy humor. You have made our life together so enjoyable and entertaining. I can always count on you to put a smile on my face and laughter in my heart.

Happy Anniversary, My Love! I'm looking forward to celebrating our life together with you today!