Say What?!?

Doesn't her face crack you up!

I promise lots of updates soon... I have a notebook full of "blog lists" right now, and I'm gonna get on that real soon. We've been busy enjoying some time with Jonathan all to ourselves- no studying, no conferences, no long work hours... it's been too fun to blog. So, I'll get around to it sometime.

Speaking of Jonathan, if you live in our hometown (or even if you don't... apparently word gets around), you may have heard we are getting separated and/or divorced. Don't feel bad if you didn't hear, though, we had no idea ourselves until we went back home for Easter, but that seems to be the news. It's sad really... we haven't lived there in ten years! I thought we were doing just fine, but what do I know, I just live with him everyday :)

All kidding aside, we are NOT getting separated or divorced or anything else even close to those things. In fact, we will celebrate 7 years of marriage and two years with our sweet baby pea in just a few months. I'm pretty proud of that, and I think Jonathan would say the same thing. Our marriage/life isn't perfect, but we aren't perfect people, so we thank God for a lot of grace, we pray 1 Peter 4:8 and the truth that "Love covers a multitude of sins," and we try our best, and we laugh a lot... especially at this new piece of gossip. The past couple of weeks, if we forget to tell each other something, or if we're aggravated, we just laugh and tell each other that it doesn't matter anyway because our divorce will be finalized soon :) I told Jonathan the other day I'd have to check with my lawyer before I went to the grocery store to see if I could buy his cereal bars.

I don't talk about our marriage a lot on the blog, because it's not that kind of blog (and my husband would cringe if he thought I was being super personal about him here in this public kind of space). It's just a little blog about our family to keep me from forgetting everything.  If it was a marriage blog, Jonathan would give me plenty of material, I'm sure :)  Since I probably don't mention him enough on the blog, I'll take this post to talk about why we will be sticking together.  Here are some little facts about us:

• We started dating when I was 17.  Jonathan was a much more mature 19 :)
• He was the best guy to date... always got the door, always paid, never got you home late.  Perfect gentleman.  (he's working on teaching Helen Claire those things now when they go out together).
• We dated for a year, then decided to take a break when I moved away to college.
• The break lasted my freshman year.  And we still talked every now and then.  I remember he called me on 9/11 to check on me and tell me to fill my car up with gas.  
• We met up one day when I was home for the summer.  We disagree on whether he called me first or I called him.  But, the short version is he was taking a class, and I had the book and told him he could borrow it.  We went to lunch.  I gave him the book.   I remember when I was getting ready that my Daddy told me it was more than dropping off a book (I think it took me about two hours to get ready).  He was right, and the rest is history.
• We got married four days after I turned 22.  Jonathan was 24. 
• We moved to a tiny one bedroom apartment.
• He started school full time a little over a year later, and we thought we had everything all planned out.  
• We moved a couple of times.
• I started graduate school in 2008 and thought I would finish by 2010.
• In the fall of 2009, we found out we were having a surprise baby. 
• On June 10, 2010, Helen Claire was born, and I watched Jonathan's face the moment he went from being a regular guy to someone's daddy.  We decided that we loved surprises.
• Jonathan graduated in May 2011, and we celebrated the fact that we made it through that year... our baby's first year, another year of being a one-income family , and a year of figuring out how to parent, how to be good to each other and good to Helen Claire.  It was a big year and a fun year.  We were challenged and we grew so much closer.
• Since then, Jonathan got an Engineering job, I've thought about going back to finish that graduate degree, and we've been having a blast with our sweet baby girl.  

It's been wild, and the plans we made were thrown out and revamped a thousand times, and we could never have planned for a dying parent in the first year of our marriage, or a happy accident baby during the last year of Engineering school, but I know that no one else would go through all of that with me/for me.

I just realized I've typed a small novel, and Jonathan is not big on words (when he reads this, he'll probably laugh and say thanks, but secretly be embarrassed that I wrote so much about him).  His love language is definitely acts of service.  If Jonathan loves you, he does things for you.  He thinks a step or two ahead and takes care of things. He's the constant, calm, steady one in our relationship, and his personality is exactly what my worrier, frenetic self needs.  Jonathan can fix anything... just ask Helen Claire.  If a toy breaks while I'm with her, she sits it to the side, and says, "Dada."  She knows he will fix it for her.  And, he always does.  Just like I know he can always "fix" me... if my feelings are hurt, if I don't know what to do, if I feel overwhelmed.  Jonathan is tender and caring, and always shows me grace and loves with an unrelenting love that teaches me about ultimate Love.  There's no reason for him to keep loving me like that, but he does, and I'm so thankful.   He gets up before we do, gets home after we do, takes the trash and recycling (and I forget to do it anytime he's not here), and I tell Helen Claire everyday that she should marry someone exactly like him... someone who would lay down his life for her in a second, without even thinking about it. If he asked, I would marry him all over again.  So, if you are worried about us, come hang out... we're still crazy, but we're still crazy about each other too. And, that's not changing anytime soon. Thick and thin, me and that one.

Now that that's out of the way, let the blog updating get started. Lots of new pictures, and Helen Claire's first concert... get ready!