these boots were made for walkin'....

Clever, no?  Well, boots aren't really the topic of this post.

See these beauties?  These were picked out amongst hundreds of other options in my quest to find the perfect wedding shoes.  The hunt began right around this time three years ago.  I purchased several options...only to return them after a second glance.  But these shoes made the cut...and today they sit perched on a shelf in my closet....at the perfect height for my toddler to grab them and play with.

Like most engaged couples, we struggled with focusing on the fact that we weren't just preparing for a wedding...but for a marriage.  These shoes are just one example where emphasis might have been placed heavily on items that truly had little importance after August 16th, 2008.  On Saturday mornings we'd gather in our Pastor's home and I'd gush over wedding favors, flowers & the invitations...and while our Pastor and his wife were excited along with us, they were also quick to continually remind us that the wedding is one day....and we ought to be pouring more (or at least just as much!) focus into the lifelong commitment we were going to be making.

They were right.

And...we knew that.  Quite honestly I think we did pretty well with the balance.

Something lately has triggered my mind to remember those comments nearly three years ago.  I suppose it's the fact that my daughter takes every opportunity to pull those shoes (and many more) off my shelf and stomp around during the day.  The very fact that I was spending my days pouring over shoe options nearly three years ago, and today I'm searching for the best grocery deals, diaper deals & googl-ing how to remove mud stains from kids clothes....that right there shows how different my life has become.

I had only known my now husband a year (dated 8 months) before I said "I do."  We became pregnant two months later...and on our second anniversary we were celebrating with our one-year old daughter & I was battling morning sickness from baby number two.

We skipped a lot of the newlywed stage...heck, we skipped a lot of the dating stage.  I don't regret it, but it did put us on the "fast track" to dealing with real life.  Baby number one didn't shake our lives up too much, but with baby number two & a toddler fighting for our attention, we're forced to face the facts.

Marriage is beautiful & marriage is HARD.

I love my husband more than I ever could have imagined, but I am a selfish, sinful person that is married to another selfish, sinful person.  We both own that fact....and we are both painfully working through that fact in order to love each other more intentionally & seek God's will for our marriage.  And I'll be honest, there are days that I wish I could return...or at least would have treasured more...the time when finding the perfect wedding shoes was my biggest worry, when sleeping in meant past 10am & when I could go to the bathroom without having an audience.

While those shoes may have brought me down the aisle.. it's God's grace that is bringing me through marriage.