Five Years

Today Corey and I celebrate our fifth anniversary. It is kind of surreal that we have been married that long, well past the newlywed stage at this point. That day five years ago was absolutely perfect in every way. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding day but what’s more important is that it symbolized the start of a life together and I feel so fortunate that Corey and I are able to do life together. Without a doubt, there is no one better suited to be my partner.

It has definitely not always been easy and some days, months, and even years have been better than others. But, that is what you sign up for when you choose to spend your life with someone – to walk by their side through all life throws your way and I’m happy to say that even five years later, I feel like I chose wisely.

So in honor of our anniversary today, I thought I’d do a quick recap of all the big events that these five years have held for us. And share some of my favorite photos from that special day, too. 

The biggest events of year one were Hurricane Sandy hitting our hometown of Hoboken, the devastation that lasted months, and our move back south to Charlotte. It was harder than I expected to relocate back closer to home but I’m so glad we did it now, looking back at all that has followed.

We celebrated our first anniversary with a nice dinner out in Charlotte shortly after settling in and then during our second year of marriage we began new jobs and built our first home. This was a fun year and we didn’t have much responsibility way back then!

The following year was a little more stressful as we both bean new jobs again. I applied for a transfer to another district because I was really unhappy in the first job I had when we moved back South. Then, almost immediately after I resigned we got the news that Corey was going to be transferred to cover the Washington, DC sales territory at his job. It was a big promotion but broke my heart to think of moving again so soon and leaving the house we just finished building. It all worked out though and we celebrated our second anniversary with some stability when the local territory opened up expectantly right before we would’ve moved. 

That year was a busy year for both of us at work but God certainly knew what he was doing when he put us in those jobs because in March Corey’s dad was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma, which is the most aggressive and deadly of all forms of brain cancer. Both of our bosses and coworkers were amazing. Our friends were supportive and really helped during those short eight weeks so that we could spend time with family, Corey could travel every other week to help out and visit with his dad, and they just loved on us a lot. Just a couple weeks after Corey’s dad passed away we found out we were expecting Madeline so our emotions definitely ran the gamete that year but what a blessing it was to have so much joy after such a sad time. 

The following year was definitely very emotional because losing a parent is hard. It totally changes everything. Having a baby changes everything, too. And experiencing both at once was a lot but also very healing. I can’t even tell you how we celebrated our anniversary last year. Those first few months of Madeline’s life were such a blur! I think we went to dinner but I am certain we were completely exhausted!

This past year has been amazing. It has definitely been the most exciting yet and has gone by so fast chasing our sweet girl around. We are much  more settled into our role as parents. I can’t say that we have it all figured out but we have figured out how to tackle all the surprises and changes together. Once again, I have a new job, and enjoy working from home part-time now and it has been amazing to spend so much more time as a family. We’ve really tried to slow life down as much as possible since Madeline was born. Some times we succeed and other times we don’t but it is a work in progress. That’s the thing about marriage, though – it is work all the time but so very worth it.  

Happy 5th anniversary, Corey! I love you to the moon and back! Click the Wedding + Family tab if you want to see more recaps of our wedding 5 years ago today.