as ben and i are about to celebrate our 9th year wedding anniversary in a few weeks, i can’t help but reflect back on the past nine years. as a young, single, naive girl, i used to think that once two people were married, they’d live a happily-ever-after kind of life. after all, you are marrying your best friend, whom you are deeply in love with; you have so many things in common and you dream of the same things for the future. what can possibly go wrong?

then i realized, we can live happily ever after. but only with hard work.

for me, the past nine years have been some of the most difficult yet rewarding time of my life. we moved across the country three times; the last time with three young children. as the years passed by, i have gotten to know my ben at a deeper level; he is more than i have ever prayed for in a spouse. yet, we still faced conflicts and dealt with struggles through the years. however, these very trials brought us closer. we are not perfect, but we are perfect for each other.

our dear friends tamara and patrick will be celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary this year as well. ben and i traveled to georgia a few weeks ago to see their precious new baby boy and i had an amazing opportunity photograph them.  a year ago (while i was pregnant with jacob) ben and i had an incredible experience of being photographed to celebrate our anniversary;  for tamara and patrick, this too was a beautiful oppurtunity for them to remember, reminisce and relive some of the most profound memories as husband and wife.

here’s tamara and patrick, i still do: