10 Years

"It has been 10 years of life, love and happiness the I wouldn't have shared with another, Love Forever, Zachary"

Those are the words written on the card attatched to the rose and lily bouquet that was delivered to my door this morning. I can scarcly belive that Zach and I have spent 10 years of our lives together. And it all started in the living room of Amy's house in Kneeland for Emily's 15th surprise birthday party.

I was dancing in the living room, Emily, Jessie, Amy, Dayl, Jeff, Zach, Adrian, Amy's sister Sarah, Dayl's sister Cara, and other's I can't remember, we were all there. I walked outside with my girlfriends, there was Zach sitting on the grass with his friends. We walked over to them, Zach poked my belly and said "Ooo squishy" Ironic because I was a size 3 and itty bitty. But it got us talking later on that night. We passed eachother a little later back in the living room, he pauses and says "You know you shouldn't wear so much make up." Little ole me ran into the bathroom and washed my make up off right away. Dayl and I were sitting on the bar stools in Amy's dining room talking. Up walks Zach and Adrian (who would later be a groom's man in our wedding) they sit across from us on the dining room chair. We got to talking and Dayl and I talked them into giving us foot massages. I still have that picture somewhere of our feet sitting in their laps, Zach and Adrian giving their "pimp" looks, chins up in the air, smug looks on their faces.

That night, after the party was over, Emily's mom gave Zach and I a ride home. along with some other kids. Zach and I sat in the back seat talking. When we got to his house, he shook my hand and said "It was really nice talking to you". Next was my turn to get dropped off. Emily walked me to my door and when she gave me a hug, I asked "Do you have Zach's phone number" She laughed and said "He asked for your number too, I gave it to him" Can we say giddy??!!! The next afternoon, Zach called "I really missed talking to you Stephanie. Do you want to go see a movie with me?" Uh, Duh, I thought, "Okay" I said. He and his dad pulled up in a dodge intrepid, and we saw "Never Been Kissed" We ate at Burger King, and sat on the Gottschalks couches for 4 hours talking, until my mom, dad and uncle came practically running through looking frantically for us.

Our second date, May 1, 1999, Zach took me to Sweet River Grill and Bar. He sat across from me, took my hands, held them in his, and said "Stephanie, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" "I have to think about it, uh..yes!!!" The story went on from there.

Now here I sit, sitting at my computer, typing this story out while our 5 month old little girl lays sleeping in my lap and our 3 and 5 year old are sitting on the couch doing their pre school work books, wearing dress up clothes. We've shared the joys of being pregnant 6 times, and welcoming 3 of those blessings into our lives and hearts. We've mourned the loss of 3 Angel Babies that changed our lives so much in such a short period of time. The house is a mess, I have 5 loads, maybe 6 loads of laundry to fold and put away, another 10 that need to be washed and dried. The dishes need to be done, the floor needs to be swept. We both weight about 50 pounds more than we did when we got married. But none...NONE of it would either of us change, or manipulate, nothing would we have had happened differently. We grew up together, we started out as 15 year old teenagers, madly in puppy love, a love that blossomed from cute and silly, to a love so deep, so strong, a love to build the sweetest dreams on. Our dreams, they now rest in eachother's eyes, in the family we've created, in the promise of tomorrow, the miracle of today, and the memory of yesterday. Our dreams, they weren't what we had expected at 15 years old, oh no no no, they are so so much more amazing, so much more rewarding.

What will come in the next 10 years? More children, new homes, new schools? A deeper, more pure infatuation with one another? I can only pray and put my trust in God that the next 10 years will only lead to another 99 more.

I love you Zach, I love you so much! Thank you for our children, thank you for the life we've built together, thank you for all you are, and all you've helped me to become!