eleventh.

It's hard for me to put into words just how surreal it is that ten years ago on this very day, a tall, skinny boy pulled into my driveway in his white Dodge Ram, came to my front door holding a card + a dozen red roses + a box from Build-A-Bear Workshop (yep, it's our little pig, Farmer Rupert's, tenth birthday, folks!), and took me to breakfast at Cracker Barrel before school to celebrate our first year as boyfriend + girlfriend. He opened my door as we got in the car, just as he always did, and we stuffed our faces with all sorts of good home-cookin'. After we cleaned our plates (side note: this was before I revealed to him my massive appetite + ability to eat an entire helping of Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast by myself and still be hungry), he sneakily slid a little delicately-wrapped box in front of me. When I opened it, I beheld the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen, and when I looked up, my handsome boyfriend had the cutest look of both pride and nerves on his face. He didn't have to ask me if I loved it, because my cheesy smile and teary eyes said it all, but he did anyway. I was quick to show it off to everyone who noticed it on my hand that day at school, and I'll never forget all the sneaky glances + obvious gazes at it all day long, especially being the topic of conversation throughout the whole lunch room. It's a pretty big deal for a sophomore in high school to get a ring with real diamonds on it from her boyfriend, but it's an even bigger deal that just six years later, that same tall, skinny boy would give that same once-brace-face, curly-haired girl another diamond ring as he asked her to spend forever with him. Our love story is my favorite.

All those years ago, I had no idea that I was saying my first "yes" to the most handsome boy in school + on the planet, but I sure am thankful that I did. I used to say that I was the luckiest girl in the world, but as our gracious Lord continually changes my heart, He has showed me that everything we have experienced together, both the good + the bad, has all been ordained by Him. Nothing that we've ever faced or come out of or been given has ever been because we were lucky or unlucky, but rather because we are cared for by the Creator of the world, the Creator of every moment we've shared together as boyfriend + girlfriend, fiances, and husband + wife.

Eleven years have come + gone, but our story is still just beginning. In just a few months, we'll add another blessing from our God to the list of blessings that is already unfathomable: being called daddy + mommy by our first child, a son that we are confident will reveal more of our Father's love for us than we have ever known before. Continually being thankful for the old memories + looking for opportunities to take on new adventures are what the Bargerons try to do, and we're just getting started.

I'm so thankful to chase after the heart of our God with this once-boy-now-man. There is no one else in the whole world quite as wonderful as Troy Jerome Bargeron.

Happy eleventh anniversary to us!