My sweet Chris, my future husband, my love, I want to tell you why you must not ask me where we stand in our relationship. Often times our lives together are not smooth sailing (it's like I have a bad tattoo that says something similar, oh the humor) and that leaves room for a lot of growth if we handle those waves with grace. There are so many nights that are fun, we laugh, we love, we enjoy each other and we are reminded why we will be married in 7 short weeks. This letter is not for those nights. This letter is for the nights that we fight until 2 am. For the nights that you do not want to see me and I go to bed without looking in the mirror because I am ashamed of the sin in my life. This is for the nights like last night where you wake up to a sweet text that I tell you I love you in, but you still find yourself dreading the moment you see me because you are not sure where our relationship stands.

We stand on a foundation that was built for us, for free, yet we played a huge part in the process of being given this foundation. We stand on a foundation that says Christ' covenant love for us is enough to tear the veil between you and I and the Lord. We stand on the promise of redemption no matter how many times we fail the Lord and each other. We stand on what was written centuries ago, by God-breathed scripture that tells us the story of an everlasting redemption type of love covenant that we entered into by faith. We stand on 9 months of walking out salvation and sanctification. We stand on your professed dying love for me 5 days after our "first date" ( I still do not count it, but by every definition I realize it was a date). We stand on countless late nights and early mornings in the coffee shop where I called you mean names for beating me in chess. I am still not sorry about that by the way, I just needed to keep my queen and I would have won. We stand on choosing each other despite how many people told us to walk away. We stand on the baggage that Christ has wiped white and washed clean so that it would not be a factor in our love for each other and ability to create a family together. We stand on differing opinions in music yet so many favorite songs together. We stand on some supportive family members and some stubborn ones that have helped us to create a life together and p.s. ...it begins really soon! We stand on a proposal that we can not tell the whole story of, because, it's our little secret why. We stand on countless times that temptation won the night yet Christ reigned victorious in the morning. Sweet future husband, won't you see that we stand on a foundation that God has laid for us so that we might walk in love and grace; each and every moment that you wonder where we stand, you must remember that we stand in forgiveness and "begin again"s so that our love may grow without hesitation. We stand on biblical truth and sweet sincere love for each other. No matter what life may bring, this is where we will stand.

Love,

your soon to be wife (7 more weeks)