CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Ivy. Wow, how brave of you. How exciting for you and your family. This is a huge step. I'm so happy for you that I could cry. Many prayers coming your way.

Happy Anniversaries!!!!

Dear Garden,

Is August your anniversary month? I feel like I remember attending all of your weddings in August somehow...but August has always been a busy wedding month and so I am unsure.

If so, congratulations!!! I'd love to hear the beauties and strengths and toils of your marriages here. Recently I have become quite fascinated in how one can make that transition into marriage. Do you feel that it is a different thing as one gets older? How have you each, individually, been responsible for your own happiness? How do you strive to continue with your own identity as you raise your family and have the labels of wife and mother to your names?

What were some of your biggest misconceptions and funny stories from your early married days? What were some of the biggest rewards and unexpected joys you have discovered from being married. I would love for us to share a dialogue about this.

I feel so different than the person I was at twenty. If I marry I won't change my name, I probably won't have more than three children, if that (I'm gettin' on in years), I would like to still keep working at least part time, and I am keen on having a French nanny! I know, the last one is more of a delusion, but the others I am pretty sure will come true. But I still find myself fascinated by this thing called marriage and by you wonderful girls who continue to prove to me again and again that it just might be worth entering into.