Hard Core Seven Month-ers

The New Year is just around the corner! Enough with this 'O-Nine' business. Onto the 'O-Ten', 'Twenty-Ten', 'O-One-O', or whatever we're going to call it. I thought it's about time to carry the banner and start blogging again. Hopefully this time with more vigor!

Of course, I must mention our amazing Christmas in California! We had a wonderful time with our family- particularly our lovely nieces and nephew. They are so precious! Please note, in the below picture I am holding my new niece Rachel Gloria. This is not a little New DeLew baby.
Moving on, in just a couple of days Mark and I can tell people that we got married LAST year. I think it makes us sound much more hard core, and even better, it makes us appear as if we know what we're doing as a married couple. I mean, obviously after 7 months of marriage we have tons of sage advice for other married people, right? Although I can't wait until we're really hard core and we've been married for 25 years, the past 7 months of newness has been so deeply fulfilling! I can't describe the joy of living with my best friend and sharing everything with each other. Freedom is the word I use to describe the past seven months. Absolute freedom. Freedom to love fully and to share fully.

Now obviously, Mark and I have gotten into our fair share of heated arguments over unsalted vs. salted butter, saying 'I understand' too often, and chicken fingers dinner. And of course, these fights always start off about superficial tidbits and morph into a monstrous debate about major life issues. How annoying. But all this to say, what has made this a wonderful 7 months is the fact that we have both committed to sit down at the dinner table and hash this stuff out. In the midst of our disagreements, I'm not afraid that this is a 'make-or-break' conversation, because no argument can break us. I have the freedom to be more honest, more real, more me. Now unfortunately, more often than not the 'more me' is just simply 'more selfish'. But that's where we get opportunities to live out God's grace and cover over that selfishness. It's a beautiful thing!

I've heard from a lot of people that the first year of marriage is the hardest. Because we've had such a fun first few months, I've been kind of waiting for the bomb to drop (or whatever that idiom is) and cause us to ask those questions 'why did I get married? who is this man? ahhh!?!?!' And of course, I"m sure there will be some type of moment like that in our life, but I'm realizing that instead of fearing the potential crazy future, I need to cherish these joyous times, use them to build a foundation that will prepare us for harder times, and remember these joys whenever we're in the midst of that darkness. So for now, the New DeLews will reflect on 2009 and simply rejoice that God has brought us deep love and fulfillment. We are so thankful.