Things didn't happen the way I planned...

Things didn't happen the way I planned. Through high school everyone told me to have a plan. I had a plan for college, dating, marriage, and eventually children. I figured I'd graduate college then get serous with a guy after dating a couple of years, settle down, then start a family. I didn’t know those steps would end up getting a little scrambled. I was eighteen when I went off to BYU Provo for college and 19 when I moved to the Teton Mountains in Wyoming for a semester. During that time some of my friends and I decided to drive down to Rexburg, ID for Halloween. We ended up going to a haunted straw maze in the middle of nowhere (pretty much all of Idaho feels like the middle of no where) and suffered through it. Outside there was a huge camel (yes a real one) that people were petting and taking pictures with. We waited our turn and when we were finally at the front I asked the man holding the camel if I could ride him. The camel's name was Ralphie. The kind old man with the cool handlebar mustache hesitated a minute then finally said, "Yes, but only if you go on a date with my son." I was dating someone else at the time but figured it would be worth it to go on a pity date in order to ride a camel. Well the next weekend Jon (the mustache man's son whom I still hadn't met) drove three hours to pick me up in the Tetons for our first date. I suppose the rest is history because we were married exactly a year later. We're coming up on our three-year mark and I couldn't be happier.

People always say the first year of marriage is the hardest... I think those people lied to me because nothing about my marriage has really been that hard. (The hard part was before we got married!). I don't think we had our first real "fight" if you can call it that, until we had been married close to two years. We had plenty of fights during the dating period, but not many after the day we were married. To this day we have never yelled at one another or held a grudge more than an hour or so. I don't mean to say marriage is easy, by any means, but it isn't hard unless you make it that way. 

I got married young; I had been 20 for only nine days when we were sealed for time and eternity in the Portland, Oregon temple. I was WAY younger than I had planned to be. At that age I don't think I fully understood marriage, I still don't. But both my husband and I are willing to make things work. We compromise and figure things out together rather than being stubborn and hardheaded. That doesn't mean we don't get frustrated with each other. Because we do. There are just better ways to come to an agreement or understand how the other person feels than fighting.  

I know I've been lucky to marry such an amazing man who has been patient and kind since the beginning. But I cannot attribute the joy in my marriage simply to lucky or even to us. I know without a doubt in my mind that it is because of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that my marriage is as joyful and rewarding as it is. My husband and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. We attend church each Sunday and have service callings in the church that we fulfill. We read our scriptures and pray frequently together on a day to day basis. I know that by striving to become more Christ like and closer to our Heavenly Father we are greatly blessed. 

I know marriage won’t always be this easy, and I anticipate the trials to come with a positive attitude. I believe hardships make us stronger and can strengthen a marriage if both parties have a desire to endure all things.