Forever Love

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Anniversaries are meant to be special and are meant to be celebrated. I can tell you where and how we celebrated our 1st anniversary, 10th anniversary, 25th anniversary, 26th, and our 27th anniversary. I can tell you that every anniversary in between was celebrated, but exactly how we celebrated I cannot officially recall. Mark used to tell me and our girls that birthdays and anniversaries are only a number, and they are each just another day. However, he did make sure that anniversary number 1, 10, 25, and 27 were ones never to forget. Since Mark has turned his whole attitude and life around, he no longer feels this way. Every day is a day to celebrate, and birthdays and anniversaries are not "just another day." They are special and are meant to be celebrated. It took his sobriety and the possibility of losing his family that made him come to this realization. Every day is a gift from God. We are not promised tomorrow so live for today.

June 18, 2021, we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. As I said in the previous post, I left the whole day/weekend up to Mark to plan. I had no idea what we had in store. We got up ate some breakfast and took off for the weekend. Prior to leaving, we texted each other our attitude/feelings and goals for the day. I am going to share some of what we said to one another.

"Dear Chel, Happy 27th anniversary. I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else. You are my rock, my soulmate, my inspiration. My goal today is to just be laid back and enjoy the day with you and stay positive and live in the moment. I hope you enjoy the day and every day moving forward. Love you to Maui and back. Always, Mark"

"My Dearest Mark, Happy anniversary to you. There is nobody I'd rather share this life with than you. You are the source of my joy, the center of my world, my inspiration, and my whole heart. I am so proud of the man you have become. Your positive changes have made me a better person, our marriage better than ever, and have left great influences on our children. My goal is to live in the moment and have an amazing day, just the two of us. And you stole my Line! But I Love you to Maui and back. Love your forever girl-Chel."

Kalli took a pic of us prior to leaving for the weekend

Before we took off, Mark brought me a bouquet of beautiful red roses. Next, we headed toward Fargo. We started with lunch at a restaurant in downtown Fargo. Then we went on to do some shopping and checked into a hotel. We headed to dinner as Mark told me we had a 5 pm reservation at a restaurant. I thought, "What restaurant in this area do you need a reservation to get in?" I had no idea. Mark put it in his GPS on his phone and off we went. As soon as we got in the car, the song "You Say" by Lauren Daigle came on the radio. Wow! We felt God's presence in the moment. We ended up at a nice restaurant in Moorhead that was featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives (we always try to visit DDD places wherever we travel). The restaurant was called the Rustica. It was perfect. The food was amazing. Mark kept looking out the window and then looking at his phone. At one point I asked him if he was surprising me with a new car because he was looking outside and then he said something about Bailee. He laughed and said I was not in fact getting a new car. I gave him a card and anniversary gift that I had special ordered for him, a cross with his sobriety date and Serenity engraved on it. Bailee texted Mark at one point and insisted that I order dessert before I open the gift from Mark. Mark even was a bit confused, but he didn't have to tell me twice to order dessert. I picked a dessert and several minutes later the waitress brought it out. I could see her walking with it and it had candles in it. She brought it over to us and it had written on the plate "Aloha." I looked at Mark confused, and he had tears in his eyes. He handed me a card and I read it. He had written a whole letter and at the end he had told me to look at my text message. Then I heard my phone go off. It was from Bailee and it was plane tickets to Maui. He bought us a trip to Maui, Hawaii for January 2022. Tears streamed down my face. I didn't believe him. By this time, the both of us had tears streaming down our faces. In all our years of being together, Mark had never planned any type of get a way. So, for him to buy a trip to Hawaii, that was unbelievable to me. I asked him if he did it because of me putting it on my vision board (remember this from an earlier blog post?). He said,"Chel, I bought that trip for us prior to you ever telling me about your vision board." He also had no idea that Bailee had called the restaurant and had them make that special dessert with Aloha written on it for the both of us. We were both surprised that evening and it made our night. God works wonders and he was again letting us know that he is and always has been by our side.

Date Night-Happy 27th Anniversary Mark and Chel

Dessert (ordered by Bailee)

After dinner, we went to downtown Fargo and walked around and if course stuffed our faces with ice cream; as if we hadn‘t eaten enough. Later, I asked Mark if I could post something on social media about our anniversary. I discussed with him what I wanted to say. Earlier that day, I had put a picture of the two of us on Snapchat. I had several people wish us happy anniversary and commented how "we made marriage look so easy." This hit me hard. If they only knew how hard we had been (and still are) fighting for our marriage. So, with Mark's input and permission, this is what we posted on social media that evening.

"Today we celebrated 27 years of marriage. I posted a picture on Snapchat earlier and a few people commented that "we make it look so easy." I wish marriage was easy, but unfortunately any marriage takes a lot of work. This past year the two of us were challenged in our marriage. We both made the decision to make some drastic changes individually and in our marriage. With a lot of hard work and a renewed faith in God, we are kicking butt! Our marriage is well on its way to becoming stronger, more loving, and Godlier than ever. Our advice to married couples (happy or not), fight for it. If you both want it to work-God will see you through. You just have to believe. "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:7

This was the first time that we publicly said anything about any issues in our marriage. We received an enormous amount of support and well wishes after we posted the above. We felt good about letting everyone know that marriage isn't easy and that our marriage was far from perfect. It was truly the beginning of us telling our story for all to hear. It made us feel good to portray the truth to others on social media where so many deny themselves pure honesty to depict what others perceive as the "perfect" image. Nobody has a perfect life or marriage. At one time in April, we had contemplated deleting all our social media accounts due to so much negativity. We decided to keep our joint accounts (yes, we share Facebook and Instagram). Our goal from that day forward was to portray truth, encouragement, and positivity on social media.