come and get your love.

photo frame found here

that guy. the ultimate teammate. my life mate. my numero uno on this earth. my bff. one of the few people who can make me laugh no matter the circumstances. he can read me like a book as hard as i try to throw him off. he's logical when i'm not. i'm ocd when he's not. not a dish do i wash that he doesn't dry and put away or a meal i cook that he doesn't do the dishes. he humors my crazy dreams and even encourages me to pursue them. we love dogs, outdoors, the same music and movies. we love being together and doing nothing. he is so easy to be with and completely low maintenance. we have the same mission on this earth and wake up every morning ready to live out that mission together. he's legit. he's kind and loving. being his wife is a joy. it's not even close to perfect; marriage was never intended to be. it's hard work, but it sure is fun with him.


when we first moved to italy, our marriage struggled in ways i never imagined. it was rough and we had no experience with any of it. everything was new and difficult. with a lot of prayer it survived and i would say it is now thriving. god planted an interesting thought in our heads. we realized how selfish we were to focus on our marriage and think that was the solution to the problem. we tried too hard to focus on each other and it just made us crazy. if the other said one wrong thing it was like went back 10 steps. i realize this is incredibly warped thinking and expectations. we have grown. we have found that we heal and grow when we serve others together. this is like medicine for the soul. we had been thinking that we weren't fit to serve others in our broken condition, but just the opposite was true. when we take the focus off ourselves and put it on others we use pure jesus love and not the selfish love of humans. that jesus love warms us and heals us and shows others what the kingdom of god is supposed to look like all at the same time. for us, it's marital gold. i don't know if this works for everybody but if your marriage is in strife, just try it. it definitely can't hurt. 


his birthday was on wednesday and as birthdays go, it wasn't the best. it was just a normal day of life here where we both had classes all day and no way to spend any time together. maybe we will go to venice soon and celebrate there.  who know? all i know is that i'm so thankful for the love of my companion on this earth.


a very merry unbirthday to ryan!
-lulu