Love Wins: 3 Years of Mawage (Princess Bride reference, anyone?)

Yesterday marked 3 long, difficult, wonderful, joy filled years that Bryce and I have been married. God has taken us through a whirlwind of learning experiences over time, but the best part was that we were together. When God said that it is not good for man to be alone, I truly have an understanding for that now. Even when we were fighting, we were together. (Of course, we rarely fight though ;-) ha!!) When we had something fun we wanted to try, we did it together. When we had a bad day and wanted someone to vent to, we were there for each other. I honestly feel one of the best parts of marriage is the fact that we are rarely ever alone...Just the way God intended it. Our friendship has grown and developed so much and it is such an exciting thing to be a part of! Bryce can make me laugh like nobody else, and provides a need for me that is huge......a best friend! Aside from Christ, it's the most important relationship that I will ever have. That relationship does not develop without energy and time. It is something that we both feel is worth investing plenty of time into in order for it to blossom and God can use our marriage to the full potential that it has.

There have been a few new things going on in the Foltz household this year. We helped launch a church called City Hope. It has been one of the biggest blessings so far that we have encountered in our marriage. It has also been one of the most difficult. Just being in ministry in general and learning all the ins and outs of leading is a growing process. We've made mistakes and learned from them. It is just wonderful to be a part of leading ministry together. It has truly given us an opportunity to look to Christ for everything. We also instilled a very strict Friday night date night policy together so we can make sure to put our personal ministry to each other first. We have made a minimal cell phone use rule during that time. It pretty much rocks. We take turns each week on planning for each other. We are loving it and loving life. City Hope is a church full of young families and it is growing in size every week! It's a wonderful thing to see God move in so many broken lives. Bryce and I have a big heart for the youth of this city of Centralia. We love them and look forward to the next year with them!

We have also endured a hardship of being a part for almost a month with only being able to communicate once. This passed summer, I went to Africa to work at an orphanage while he stayed home to work and lead youth. It was the most awesome experience for me and pretty hard for him. He was so sweet and thoughtful while I was gone and found us a new apartment AND moved us in to surprise me! Now, he has to deal with me being obsessed with the kids there and wanting to adopt several of them. He has to listen to me talk about them day and night.....What a good guy. Best part of it is he cannot wait to meet them either. This is a screen shot of the first thing I saw while I waited for the plane to unload when I opened up facebook. A few tears were shed....I cannot lie.