The 16th, was our 2 year anniversary. 

We met in June 2021. Got surprisingly pregnant with twins on Valentine’s Day 2022. Moved in together for the first time, blended our family and got engaged in summer of 2022. Then had twins and got diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in October 2022. 

In those first 18 months we lived a lifetime together. 

We picked February 16 to get married to coordinate with going out of town for my first PET scan since starting treatment. 

Over the last 2 years we have paid the price of those first 18 months. We had to learn everything together. We had to learn how to communicate, to prioritize another persons feelings, how to be parents together, live together, we had to learn how to do money together and make decisions together. We had to learn how to productively fight and we learned that being hurtful and mean damages us long term and compounds the problem we started with. 

One of our most valuable lessons was learning that what you preserve is most often NOT the other persons intent. It has been hard. Some days have felt impossible. But we’ve never given up and for that I commend us. We choose each other and this family every single day and with every single decision.

Last year, the traditional gift was paper. I gave the analogy that we were a sheet of paper, wrapped in a sheet protector on a raft in the middle of the ocean during hurricane. 

I think we have now safely landed on an island. I am really proud of the hard work we have put in to define us, define our family and find peace in the chaos of our lives. 

The 2nd wedding anniversary gift is cotton, symbolising the intertwining of two lives and the growing strength and resilience of the relationship. This is where we are today. 

Happy Anniversary Christopher. I want nothing more, than 48 more of these with you.