They were sitting behind me on that warm Thursday night. The window seat had been reserved by the first of them to arrive. He greeted her with a smile and she gave him a nervous laugh. A first date? I wondered. A meeting of friends on the brink of realizing it may be more than that? I shifted in my seat and pretended to continue reading.
It didn’t take long to gather that there was romance in the air. But as their little love story blossomed before my very ears, I was immediately swept away into my own.
While I absolutely loved (loved!) the early stages of my relationship with Ty, what I love even more is that I’ve increasingly loved every stage since. There is something to be said for the blank slate that is laid before you as a brand new couple; like empty pages filling a book, your story is still waiting to be told.
But as the lines are written and the narrative begins to unfold, the beauty of a life shared slowly reveals itself—in all its wild and wonderful glory.
Dreaming about marriage was tons of fun—but doing life as husband and wife is undoubtedly sweeter. And while thinking about the “wheres” and “whens” and “how in the worlds” used to delight and excite us—answering those same questions hand-in-hand, side-by-side is better than I ever imagined.
This month Ty and I celebrate four years of marriage. And although I truly treasure and sometimes miss the earliest days of our relationship, I’m thankful for the joy it is to know him better and love him deeper with each and every passing year.
As I got up out of my chair to leave that night, I shot a smile at the pair still sitting behind me, so completely lost in one another. The smile was partly because it was such a precious scene—but mostly because I was reminded once again how sweet it is to be loved by Ty.
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