eleven

Here’s what marriage has taught me about love: it isn’t merely a feeling, nor is it just about words. Love is an active choice you make regularly, not only to perform grand gestures but also, and more importantly, to carry out everyday tasks like taking out the garbage or homeschooling your children during a pandemic lockdown. Strangely, that’s the most romantic thing of all.

It’s the actions, woven into the daily decisions and sacrifices you make again and again to improve someone else’s life. Choosing to pay attention and show care, nurturing their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental wellbeing, and helping them grow are what truly matter. Words are like the air on top of the icing. Without the cake of action, they’re meaningless.

Connection may be instant, and attraction may feel magical, but sustaining love is not. It takes effort. The chemistry makes it more fun, not easier.

Eleven years ago today, we chose to fly the covenant banner together on the ‘us versus the world’ team.

Happy 11th wedding anniversary, RD!

parenthood

RD decided that having a peaceful life was highly overrated, so he bit the bullet and proposed to me at this exact spot 11 years ago.

We happily wed and were naively blissful before our daughters & dogs came in like tidal waves and broke our sanity in the greatest way.

party of 6

When I purchased these stocking hangers last year - they were only available in sets of three and I needed four. I begrudgingly ordered twin packs and wondered what I’d do with the remainders. Little did I know, we would become a family of six by next Christmas! 

rainbows

Rainbows are beautiful and fun to look at because they seem to just appear out of nowhere. As such, they hold some kind of magical and mysterious quality about them. Scientifically, a rainbow is just an optical illusion.

The rainbow's ability to deliver joy is surely why it’s painted on children's cheeks at school fetes and fun fairs. Why it’s found on birthday cakes and toys. Why it’s featured in stories, poetry, songs and other literature. Why it’s an element of folklore across different nations and cultures, generally signifying a connection to God or the heavens.

This multicoloured arch is believed to be God’s everlasting promise to us and is a symbol of what theologians call God’s common grace - the grace he shows to all mankind.