Year One.

One year. 12 months. 365 days. 525,600 minutes.

That is how long it's been since life as I knew it changed for the better. That is the time that has passed since my singleness was kissed goodbye and I embraced a warm, welcome, identity as a married lady.

What a year it has been.

People often told Tyson and I that our first year of marriage is going to be the hardest. All the transition, all the new, all that comes with sharing your life in a new way with another person. We always were greeted by couples who had been married for many years, with sighs and grins that seemed like they were saying, "Oh, just you wait and see what you're getting yourself into!" It was always a bit off-putting, to be told that our love will change, and then there is just commitment.


Now I wasn't naive enough to believe that we were immune from any sort of challenge in our marriage and that our love would always look exactly the way it did one year ago on our wedding day. As a matter of fact, after one year, I've come to see the truth in some of those words but not for the reasons I thought.

This was a hard year-- but not because of something in our marriage. Our love has changed--if anything it's solidified and become a strong place amidst ever-changing ground.

This year was filled with loads of new. New experiences. New people. New place. New identities amidst shoes that seemed too lofty to fill. I can't count the times Tyson and I have asked one anther, "What are we even doing here?" You could say that oftentimes, the ambiguity of our futures lurked behind us as we attempted to discern where we were being called in our future and our present.

This year was hard in the painful reality of loss- of self, of our people, of a land in which we once were deeply rooted.

But our love is a love that has been constantly tender, compassionate, and abounding in grace and the pains were also met with moments of joy and necessary vulnerability.


There were many parts of this year that seemed blurry, foggy, and led me to doubt what I believed about myself, our community, and this world we lived. Yet the love in our marriage and the grace we received through our Lord remained solid ground.

In a time of vast uncertainty, the only thing I felt truly certain of was that our love was abundant and our love was true.

Being married to Tyson, I've experienced the depths of God's love and grace for his people. In moments where I felt completely see-through and raw, Tyson embraced that rawness by surrounding me in grace. Time and time again, he became my safe place. A place to experience healing. A place to process. A place to pursue wholeness.

That is what I love about this man. He continually encourages me to pursue the extent of my whole humanity. He gives me space to consider my pain, my hurt, my passions, my deep loves, my doubts, my frustrations, my sillyness, my insanity. And he makes it clear to me that while I enter into whatever it is I need, he will still be there-- loving me.

That is the thing, friends. Tyson's heart to me, is the nearest and dearest experience I have of God's heart. He calls us to acknowledge our finitude because even when we do, he's still sovereign, there is still grace.

Marriage has been that space for me this year. It has given me a more holistic picture of grace amidst all the beauty and the pain that life has to offer.

I am thankful for our first year together. I am thankful for Tyson-- still the love of my life and quite possibly the best human on this earth.

Here is to year one. Now make way for year two.