love so amazing...

** first let me preface that i am okay on this day...mike and i did not "celebrate" valentine's day. i think we were better at expressing romance during the ordinary days.**

i found this letter i wrote to mike as i've been sorting through boxes of pictures and other memories. it stuck out to me cause it was a valentine's letter and we really didn't get into this holiday. it was written during our first year living in seattle.

i hesitate knowing if i want to share with you what i wrote. i don't want to "glorify" our marriage, cause it had it's major flaws and i would say many days we failed to delight in each other, to be patient, to express our love. but i am so grateful that we fought hard to get to those moments of grace, love, beauty. and when we had them...it was a little piece of the sacred. i knew God more in those moments. and really mike SPOILED me! i was blessed....

so i do want to share with you my words to mike, my husband and best friend...cause we had a good love, that allowed us to experience the amazing and divine love of God.

to my friend, my husband, my love...

loving you can be such a vulnerable act. these past couple of months have challenged me to be more naked and that's scary. what has been amazing is the more you see of me, the more you loved me. i am so stunned by your forgiveness and tenderness that i sometimes want to run from it.

i'm thankful for where we are at...instead of loving each other in silly gestures on this holiday, we are wrestling with our sin and grieving our disappointments.

i love you mike. and the more you expose your heart, show me all the good and bad, the deeper i fall. your nakedness tells me you trust me and you're challenging me to cover you with grace. i long for us to be there.

always yours,
kelly