Our first year was sweet and so special in a thousand ways.  The unspoken and often unknown expectations that we each carry into marriage were absent our first year, I think most of the expectations I did feel were self imposed.  What I imposed on myself wasn’t anything horribly damaging or detrimental but if I could go back and tell myself as a new wife a few things, this is what I would tell myself.

Looking back on this past year of our marriage, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t go back and do it again but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.  We grew apart in a thousand ways.  We were broken, shattered in ways that made me wonder if there was ever hope of being mended.  Some days the vows we spoke to one another on that wintry afternoon seemed to mock us as we failed one another and hurt one another deeply again and again.