How do you define eleven?
- A university degree.
- Five professional positions, with five different organizations.
- Two houses, built with our blood, sweat and tears.
- A family member with a serious ongoing mental illness.
- My own struggle with depression and anxiety.
- Cancer, a brain aneurysm, and quadruple bypass heart surgery.
- Vacations to the Bahamas, Cuba, Las Vegas, Florida, the Maritimes, Victoria and Vancouver.
- A diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease.
- Seven scrapbooks filled with images and words to tell our story.
- Two glorious, beautiful sons.
- Two year-long, sleepless and overwhelming maternity leaves.
- Three different daycare providers.
- A long , drawn out and emotional battle over a motorcycle. (He eventually won).
- Too many commutes to count.
In the end the end I realize there is more to this journey than can easily be defined.
Thank you for everything my love, for all that you do and for being my best friend. There are no words that describe what you mean to me.
Happy Anniversary
xo
Without Today 
Happy Anniversary, my friend! It’s wonderful that you have each other and can support one another through the tough times along with the good times. My list would have a lot of stressful times on there, too, and I’m so glad I had my hubby with me to get through each one of them! You and Jay are awesome and have such a beautiful family. Your boys are very lucky to have such warm and loving parents! Congrats on 11 years of marriage and wishing you many, many more! xo
Happy Anniversary! Thanks for the reminder to celebrate the good times and the bad times. They all make us stronger and remind us to count our blessings.
Happy Anniversary! Love this post, so real and true and loving. I’m gonna do a list for our next anniversary, which will be two years in about 8 months… okay damn I got nothing. Love your post though!
Thank you! Your list will most certainly grow. Two years seems like yesterday for me. Enjoy every moment.
Happy anniversary!
I love that we were married less than a month apart … happy, happy 11 and here’s to many more.
xox
Happy Anniversary to the both you! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness together! XOXO
Wow, it caught me off guard to shed a tear for your anniversary. What the? Your writing is beautiful, and so is your life, your openness , and your vulnerability. I’m so happy for your milestone. Eleven doesn’t get much press, what with coming right after the big 10. I don’t think I cried on my eleventh. But, I guess the tears make sense, we are pretty tight, you and me. I mean, we’ve shared emails…. and I said hi to you outside a bathroom door one time. Of course. Enjoy, enjoy Christine. I love this picture of you two!
Happy anniversary to you both! You look so happy and well-prepared to continue walking this path together.
Happy anniversary! What a sweet picture of you two!
Happy Anniversary! 1, 11, 31…any number of years is a good number when you’re with the one you love. Enjoy celebrating my friend.
Happy Anniversary! Love all the living done in these words. Happy celebration!
Christine, you’ve created a very compelling list here. It’s a good reminder that life has both beauty and pain, and every great marriage encompasses both. But here’s hoping that the next eleven years tilt even more heavily toward peace, harmony, joy, celebration, growth, love, happiness…you get the idea.
A belated happy anniversary to you guys! We are coming up on seven, so eleven seems BIG 🙂 I love the picture.
What a full, beautiful eleven years!
Happy Anniversary!! You are so adorable – I don’t think I have seen a photo of you before. And you and your husband – you are cuteness squared. What an 11 years you have shared! I wish you many, many, many more.
xoxo