10

Do you ever get to a point in your life here you look back on a specific chunk of time and just can't help but think you are the luckiest, most blessed person alive? I do. And I have been a lot lately. I remember talking with Mason before he left and making the decision together whether he was going to stay and we were going to get married, or whether he would go and I would wait. I remember struggling so badly back and forth wishing that we could just get married and call it good. I mean both were righteous decisions... temple marriage vs. serving a mission. And after all he was 23 years old. Heavenly Father wouldn't have been disappointed in either one. At one point we did call off the mission and chose marriage, but just a few days later we got our heads on straight and realized what we had to do. I can tell you that these past two years have never not once been easy. Enjoyable? Yes, of course. Did I learn a lot? Yes, more than I ever have before or ever could have had we made the opposite decision. But easy was never the word for it. It has been a constant strengthening experience for me. It strengthened my faith, my love for my Father in Heaven, my love for my gorgeous boyfriend Mason Rose, my confidence, my testimony, my trust in the Lord's plan, I could go on forever. I was able to get a good job, work hard to get back into school and choose a career path, start a savings account, help my family get to the temple to be sealed, help and support my boyfriend while he served an honorable and exemplary two year mission for our church, and most of all I was able to learn more about myself and my purpose here than I would have been able to had we taken the easy way out and just settled for who we were and married each other right off the bat. I am so grateful and so happy that I have had to struggle, had to deal with the constant, unwanted, opinions of others, had to battle with the stereotypes of girls who "wait for missionaries," and had to accept that there was no one else on Gods green Earth that understood how I was feeling or what I was thinking except for my Savior Jesus Christ, which in turn allowed me to create a personal relationship with Him. Now I am TEN DAYS away from being with my best friend, my side kick, the love of my life again and I am in a constant whirlwind of excitement and anxiety. It can't come fast enough. I can't wait to have my boyfriend back with me, hold his hand, watch movies together, run errands together, drive around and sing and take pictures together. I am so ready for that. I am so ready for the next part of my life... the part that includes Mason again... FINALLY. So here's to all you nay saying fools who said I wouldn't make it. Yes, I struggled, and it wasn't easy and yes I may have done things a little differently than you would have liked, but that's not your place to say now is it? One way or another I made it here. And that is ALL that matters. I am so blessed to know Mason and to have been a part of this experience with him. Being apart has strengthened my testimony and my love for him more than anything else that we could have gone through together would have. I am so proud of him for becoming the man that he is now, and for taking the steps to change the things that he needed to in order to get here. He is too good for me. But I will spend my whole life trying to be good enough for him if that's what it takes.... there's is nothing (aside from the gospel,) more important to me than that man. He is my everything...

I mean come on..... How could you not love this face??

TEN DAYS.

but hey.... who's counting :)

xoxo,

randi j.