The one year mark

Today is Aaron and my one year wedding anniversary. I keep telling him that now we are legit. Though I hope we never actually stop acting like the crazy newly weds we have been this past year.
 This has been  the most amazing journey, which is actually a good word for our first year... as we journeyed all over the world! haha. For sure we have had little bumps along the way, like our flight to Mongolia, and finding our place here in New Zealand. But over all its been amazing. I can honestly say I adore being married, mostly I am sure, because of WHO I am married too. He is (to sound cliche' and cheesy) so amazing and so far beyond the guy I thought I would get, I can't thank God enough for the man. :)
 Being in New Zealand these past months has been amazing, just for life experience and for growing as a couple. Being able to do our dream of moving over seas in the first year of marriage is some thing we will never forget, and always be thankful for. And I have to say, dealing with the huge stress of that kinda of a move in the first few months, that one, we handled the stress like champs ( well Aaron was the true champ, but I still handled it pretty good. haha) and we came out of with a pretty good perspective on what is worth worrying about in life. We know how to roll with the punches now for sure! :)
 I thought I would share some of the high lights, some of our favorite moments in the past year. Hope you enjoy them. :)
 Well to start, I have to say the wedding was so fantastic! I would get remarried every day if we could duplicate that day! It was so laid back and just fun. I wouldn't have changed a single thing about our wedding.
 Our honey moon was so awesome. But one of the best highlights, we would sit out on the deck of the house we rented at night and look at the stars while listening to the ocean. One night there was a few shooting stars that were so close we could actually see the flames and the smoke trail. Was incredible!
 Mongolia. All of it. So awesome. For me, being able to see where Aaron grew up, amazing. And to see such a cool country, and do it with Mom and Dad G still there was a huge blessing.
 We went on a cruise with my parents before we moved. Had some real crap weather, but so much fun running around a boat and islands with my folks.
 Spending time with Nathan, Jen, and Coen in OK. So grateful for them.
 Getting to know "our kids" here in New Zealand has been great. We love them.
  Out "dates" where we drive around and explore New Zealand together. We live in a gorgeous country.
And over all, for me, its been watching God provide for, literally, our every need. We could actually almost sit back and just watch Him work. I know I have grown so much, Aaron has too. I think we are both are really thankful that God put us in a place early on in our life together where we had to lean completely on God and each other. I think the things we have learned in this first year will benefit us for the rest of our 80 years together. One down.. 79 to go!!!!!!!
 Thank you to every one for being there for us in every thing. You have been blessings to us, and we love you.

Little People.

     Hey everyone! Aaron here! I apologize that its been so long since there has been blogging action here, but sometimes its easy to forget that you have things worth writing about!
     Recently due to a bout of warm weather and a beautiful cloudless night, my marvelous wife and I decided to take a drive and take some pictures of the stars. Since we both love photography, and both love a good bit of nature, our dates usually consist of us driving until we find something we deem 'photo worthy'.
     This night was particularly beautiful, no clouds, warm weather..the only deterrence was the occasional car driving by and a swarm of terrifying sheep (welcome to New Zealand). All this to say, you could see a million stars. Enough to make you feel fairly insignificant anyways. I would submit that we could all use the occasional dose of starry nights. A little blow to the pride, a giant picture that for once doesn't paint us as the center of the universe. Every day society tells us that we are amazing, we're something special, that we can accomplish amazing things. While this is nice and all, and it gives us the highly coveted 'warm fuzzies', its a complete lie. Now before you start searching for the largest and sharpest cyber-rock to cyber-stone me with, hear me out! All of those things, while a complete lie from hell, are also true.

      The difference is the source from which those warm fuzzy things flow. While I am actually something quite special, and have every intention of doing some pretty amazing jazz, that is only because of Christ in me. On my own I'm actually fairly corrupt and capable of innumerable atrocities! You can see why I really appreciate the fact that the crazy awesome God who bothered to make a universe that can make you feel like an amoeba in the ocean did what had to be done to free me from that depraved self and be amazing through me. Also you should be able to see why I actually get surprisingly angry when I see people trying to steal the credit for anything that is actually good and worthwhile. Most of us have heard it said that every good and perfect gift comes from above. That means that if it is legitimately good, and worthwhile, that we didn't do it! If this doesn't make sense, don't worry. I'm not the best at explaining things as deep and wonderful as this. However, do feel free to flick me and e-mail and I'll try again, because it will change the way you see everything once it sinks in! Also I love the stars...and photography..and my wife. But in a completely different order.