A 3rd Year Wedding Anniversary Post

I hope nobody minds once a year I use this platform for something other than recipes and health tips.  I am grateful for so many things in my life, but none more than God and my family. On November 1st, Bob and I are celebrating our 3rd year of marriage.  I’d like to take this time to thank him for being the most grounding force in my life. I love the fact that this blog can also serve as a journal for my memories that will forever be around for our children.  This year instead of sticking with the theme I used our first year “12 things the first year of marriage has taught me” I thought I would do a quick re cap on our year.

But first I want to mention something about Bob.  When we started dating 5 years ago, he had lost his wife (and my friend)  a year earlier to cancer. (Click here to read our love story).  He always thanked me for “saving” him. He found himself distraught after losing his best friend and suddenly becoming a single father of two.  But it didn’t take long for me to realize the gift of healing he brought to me!  Not just physically, but emotionally.  He has shown and proven himself to be a man I didn’t know existed.   He was patient with me when I didn’t know how to trust.  He put up with me when I was sometimes bull headed and stubborn when it came to our business.  And he also never saw me as a burdon when it came to my health issues.  What I also learned about him in this past year was that this website and business mean A LOT more to him than I had realized.  I had held it tight, wanting to do it all my way, not fully realizing the deeper meaning behind why he struggled so much with wanting to be heard by me.  He couldn’t save Laura and I think having this opportunity to take part in sharing all the health information we have learned, especially when it comes to cancer, gives him a bigger purpose.   He wasn’t armed with any of the information he now has when Laura was dying and he felt helpless.  He views EPGW as something Laura would have been proud of him for contributing to, and I am proud of him too.   He tells me he will make sure he never looses another wife, and so therefore he takes care of me like nobody has before.  He is my friend, my advisor, my favorite comedian, he’s everything technical behind EPGW, he’s the love I was meant to have in my life and I thank God everyday for him. Happy Anniversary Bob, I will spend the rest of my life making trying to make you as happy as you make me.

I love this picture because it was taken seconds before he proposed in the Tennessee mountains.  My son who was 8 at the time, told me he suspected he would propose on this trip.  I told him not to get his hopes up because I was sure that was NOT the case.  I was happy to be wrong.

Our honeymoon in Mexico.  We were so physically and emotionally drained from the wedding and all the planning, we laid on this “beach bed” for FIVE hours, never moving!  We needed it.

But then it was time to PLAY!!  This was our favorite part of our honeymoon.  We felt like “adventure couple”.

We experienced what felt like miracles in our life!   We were invited to speak at Whole Foods.

We not only got to visit Charles Stanley’s church, but I was able to meet him in person and hand him a heart felt letter I wrote him.  He absolutely changed the course of my life, and getting to tell him what his words have done for me over the years was priceless!

We watched our healthy Eat Pray Get Well dessert line hit the shelves!

And we had some rough patches as well.  Here we are in an Atlanta hotel.  We took the trip for doctors visit a couple times this year for minor set backs, but Bob was with me every step of the way!

We took some other trips that were not wanted at all.  Here we are finally in Raleigh, NC after 17 hours of driving.  We were trying to outrun hurricane Irma.

We took a cruise to celebrate Bob’s birthday!

Bob, thank you for the beautiful life and beautiful family you have given me.

Our sons who share the same birthday and are exactly one year apart.

I’ll let this last picture do the talking.  I LOVE YOU BOB!