Our 21st Anniversary

I do not have the perfect marriage. I am NOT the perfect wife. Matt is not the perfect husband.

Fortunately, perfection is not the goal!

What we have going for us is that we are agreed that Christ is the focal point and that our marriage is our top priority. In our imperfection we don’t always act as if that’s true but we always course-correct to the Cross.

We are committed to each other and we work on the things we need to work on. We work on ourselves and then we link arms and face the world together.

Neither one of us assumes we’ve arrived, made it, or are the best version of our selves that we can be, but we both want work toward that and we both want to support the other in their own journey.

We’ve learned that our marriage looks different from others’ marriages and that that is okay. We have changed and grown and done so together… and we are happier now than we were 21 years ago as newly-weds.

Celebrating our 20th was way cooler… in Venice for a week with no kids! This year we’ve been staying-at-home with five kids and our getaway was within walking distance – just a dinner overlooking the fields we love to walk and run in. And it was perfect. We were together, healthy, and hopeful.

Babe, here’s to the next 21!

Belle Vista is on the 20th floor of an apartment complex just outside the back gate. The view once you exit the elevator is beautiful and has a view of the Stuttgart TV tower. As we neared the door to the restaurant we noticed a picture of the NYC skyline! We’ll be there in a month and a half!

Once seated we saw that the whole place is NYC themed!

The views were beautiful even for people who don’t run those fields every day, but they were especially breathtaking for us. We’ve literally run hundreds of collective miles in those fields.

Top floor restaurant.

Stuttgart TV tower

From Stuttgart to NYC

Another pic of NYC on the wall.

Spargelcremesuppe. I will miss this!

In this view we can see the Agricultural school – our Easter pics were taken there.

In this view we can see “our fields” and “the tree” in in the middle.

UPDATED: JUNE 7, 2020

Matt and I went to Rothenburg yesterday with the specific goal to buy a Schwibbogen. You see these all over Germany and last Christmas we determined that our farewell Germany gift to ourselves would be to buy one at a Christmas Market. Well, we won’t be here this Christmas so we went to Kathie Wohlfahrt and bought the one we loved the most.

I’ll get better pics once it’s on display this Christmas. In this picture I didn’t even have the background set up right.

We even splurged and bought the Rothenburg background.

We waited in a short line outside for about 15 minutes. Once inside we masked-up and waited for a basket. Once inside, you could almost pretend that things were normal…

We ate at our favorite doner shop before shopping and then had a cup of coffee and a chocolate treat before heading home.

 

 

I kept trying my best to soak all of it up. Take it all in. That was probably my last time there.