Vows

August 18, 2007

This is my 700th blog post (wow), and I like that it comes today, on our fifth wedding anniversary. I started this blog just months after our beautiful wedding, to record our lives as newlyweds. Now, here we are - five years, 700 blog posts, three states, four apartments, one baby and countless wonderful memories later - and we are every bit as blissfully happy together today as we were on our wedding day, and exponentially more in love. That is something that the me of August 18, 2007 would never have dreamed possible - how could I ever be happier and more in love than I was on that day? But now here I am, the me of August 18, 2012, declaring that not only is it possible, but it is absolutely true.

Five years ago today, Eric and I stood up in front of God and a church full of our family and friends and recited vows to each other. Although we wrote personal letters to each other before our wedding ceremony, our actual vows were traditional - for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. I have always found something very romantic about reciting those vows as so many before us have done. They are so beautiful and so simply and eloquently voice all the promises I wished to make to Eric on our wedding day.

But today, in honor of our fifth wedding anniversary, I want to write my own vows to Eric - vows that reflect where we are today and what I want to promise to him for our future. Posting my vows on my blog may not be nearly as romantic as wearing a white gown in a beautiful church and declaring my love in front of family and friends, but it is the best way I know how to publicly promise to love and honor my husband always. And so...

Eric Ryan, 

I promise to love you faithfully and completely every day of my life. 

I promise you everlasting friendship, to always be the person you can talk to and cry with during challenging times and laugh with (until our faces hurt!) during happy ones. 

I promise you my undying loyalty. I promise to always lift you up when speaking about you to others and to stay by your side until the very end, no matter what obstacles life may place in our path. 

I promise to make our family my top priority. You, Ellie and any future children we may be blessed with will always be my primary concern. You are the great loves of my life. 

I promise to be the very best mother I can be to our children. I promise to do my best to raise them to be good, kind, thoughtful and caring people, just as your mother raised you. 

I promise to continue to nurture our relationship, and to make sure it doesn't get lost in the hustle and bustle of our new life as parents. I promise to make time for you and for us in order to help our relationship continue to grow, evolve, strengthen and deepen.

I promise to support all your endeavors and encourage you as you take on new challenges. I promise to be a listening ear and a shoulder to lean on, a cheerleader when you need encouragement and a hand to hold when you are apprehensive. And when you ultimately succeed, I promise to be there to celebrate your triumphs.

I promise to follow you anywhere life leads us. Although I have loved every moment of our life in New York (and D.C. before that), I know that we will be just as happy anywhere else in the world. My home is wherever you are and always will be. 

I promise to encourage you in the role of spiritual head of our family. I promise to help your faith grow in any way I can, to help you teach our children about God's grace, and to pray with and for our family every day. 

I promise to have those deep conversations with you, to debate with you and work through life's great questions. I promise to challenge you to think about things in new ways as much as I possibly can. 

I promise to always seek out new adventures with you.  

I promise always to laugh at your jokes, even the bad ones! (Not that there ever are any bad ones, of course.) 

I promise to care for you whenever you are sick or injured, in the same selfless way that you have cared for me in recent times of need.

I promise to always kiss you goodnight. 

I promise to never take you for granted and to always take notice of the kind and thoughtful things you do for me and for our family, regardless of how big or how small they may seem.  

I will love you with all that I have and all that I am, always and forever. 

I promise.

Happy fifth wedding anniversary, my love. Here's to many, many more.