It is the Love of a Lifetime, just like the 90s hairband Firehouse said it would be

There are many moments when I look at my husband, Joey, and can’t believe how much we’ve been through together; how much of each other’s lives we know. Though he wasn’t a major player in mine until I hit 18, Joey has, in some way, shape or form, been in my life since I was 12, when we were 6th graders. We have known each other for 20 years, been a couple (though it was on-and-off for a bit) for 14 years and this July, will have been married for 7 years.

We have coached each other into becoming better versions of ourselves and better partners to each other. It hasn’t always been easy, but our marriage has grown into something I am deeply proud of and grateful for.

There is a series of photos that I think serve as a vignette into the huge accomplishments of our lives together, and I plan to keep adding to them as the years whip by. Here’s what we have so far:

Here we are, or rather, here are our feet, in the sandy beaches of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in July of 2008. It was our first vacation devoted to relaxation. Five months later, we would become pregnant with our first child.

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Here are our feet in a pile of rubble that was our house in July of 2008, taken just days after we returned from Cabo. Joey and I spent 5 years of marriage destroying and painstakingly rebuilding every inch of our house. I often think about all the other things we could have done if we had never bought this house (travel, relax, shop other places besides Home Depot), but I know it was the challenging-beyond-words experience of building this house together that has helped shape our marriage into what it is today.

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And here are our feet in May of 2010, dressed up for the grown up jobs we finally both landed, he as an elementary school principal and me as an associate editor for cooking magazines. And there, between our feet, our firstborn child – a little girl who makes our hearts explode with love every day.

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Here’s the most recent shot of our feet, taken in May of 2011 on the sandy beaches of Riviera Maya, Mexico, days after watching a friend we’ve known for as long as we’ve known each other get married. And there’s my swelling belly, home to our second child.

I have built a life with this man, this man that I have known for most of my life. And while I never would have guessed, at age 18, that my life would have unfolded this way, I am so happy with how the pieces fell, so proud of the work we’ve done together and so grateful for all that we’re creating together.

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