Different

Have you ever seen the "Life is Good" brand?  We have a magnet on our fridge that says that.  I feel like I could be a spokesperson for that brand.  I'm lucky.  How many people are blessed enough to say that?  I don't talk in a "haha look at me" sort of way, but in the sort of way where I am truly thankful for what God has done in my life, and the fact that life truly is just that...good.

A lot has changed since my last entries.  My last name is different now, for instance :)  I live in a different place (Ohio to Texas).  I'm now a cheerleading coach.  Things like that.

Our apartment is more or less set up, which is exciting!  Pictures to come soon.  I miss my sisters and my friends.  But I'm not homesick.  We've been going into work every day for the past two weeks, and I'm excited about teaching this year. I love the people I work with.  I love where we live.  Things are good, all around.

I'm a wife now.  This word is still strange and new, in so many ways.  Yet though we've only been married a month, it's already as familiar as my own hands.  If I were married to anyone else, I think it would be terrible.  But I absolutely love being married, since it's to Joseph. I love being Joseph's wife.  That sense of belonging completely to someone else.  It would seem like I would have "given up" freedom, or my own identity, and that's the farthest thing from the truth.  It's a different type of freedom, that's all.  Sure, there are certain things I won't do anymore.  But that's because I've chosen that I didn't want them.  I have a new kind of identity now, one that's bigger than anything I could have imagined.  And I truly do wake up every morning next to my best friend.  How much luckier can a person be?

Of course it's still "honeymoon stage" in a lot of ways, but that doesn't mean we are jaded about what to expect in marriage.  I think we have just both been through so much in the past few years, that we are finally just getting to enjoy a happy time.  There's nothing wrong with that.  Life is always good, and some days are just golden.  "Rejoice in the Lord always."

I'm learning what it means to forgive, and not just in the context of marriage.  This to me is my hardest lesson right now.  

And this is my life, and I am thankful.