marriage.

if you were to ask me 5 years ago what i thought i would be doing on september 1, 2007, i'm not sure what i would have said. but it wouldn't have had anything to do with marriage.

i think that if i were to send an email to myself, to me 5 years ago, i would definitely discourage the haircut that i was about to get right before i went to college. i would remind myself not to judge other people. i would tell myself to walk away from that guy that says he's from jews for Jesus, he turns out to be more trouble than anything . . . yes, he is funny, but funny only gets you so far.

but the most important thing i would tell myself would be not to stress out too much about going to ave - when you pray and God awakens your conscience to His will, obey it and the rewards will be one hundred fold. people will give you crap for it, you'll second guess yourself every day, or at least every time that things aren't going so well - but it will all be worth it. go to michigan and live it up because God has some amazing things in mind for you there.

i never would have guessed that i would find such amazing friends there. i NEVER would have guessed that i would find my spouse there. i don't think i would ruin it for myself, i wouldn't have wanted to know, but in retrospect, it's absolutely amazing how things fell together. it's amazing how things were planned.


i want to fall more deeply in love with ariel.

i want to fall more deeply in love with Jesus.

and it's wonderful that i can love ariel and fall in love with Jesus. and i can love Jesus and fall in love with ariel.


ariel and i have been more like . . . us . . . . lately. we've actually been more like we were before we got engaged - laughing, sweet, patient - it's refreshing. funny how engagement changed the way we see each other. even funnier how much we love each other regardless and because of all of the baggage that we're both bringing to this marriage.

"lord Jesus, give me 24 hours of perserverance . . . "