Two Years of Marriage

Recently, we escaped to the tranquil little town of Maleny to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been two years of marriage! Two years since our wedding and moving to Brisbane!

We’ve formed two anniversary traditions. The first tradition is staying at Maleny Bramasole. The hosts, Dennis and Gail, are so kind and hospitable and their warmth shines through the home’s design. The lower level is where guests stay. It’s fairly simple, but filled with little touches of comfort like fragrant flowers from the garden, wine and a cheese platter.

The gardens are large and tropical, rather than a manicured. There are plenty of cute nooks and cranny’s to read or chat in.

They’ve even got a tyre swing. I felt like a kid again (mostly because I almost fell off).

Reis on the other hand…felt like Miley Cyrus.

Fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs are planted around the garden. We found a lemon to infuse our water with. I am usually too lazy to do this, so the zesty water was a simplicity that helped make the trip special.

Our second tradition is reflecting on five things we’ve each learnt the past year, so here’s this years list:

Amy’s list:

1. Whilst Reis is away, I need to look after myself by expressing my feelings to a close friend rather than keeping up appearances because ‘I chose the army wife life’ and ‘I just need to be positive’. Pride has got to go.

2.  Quality of friendships is more valuable than the quantity of friendships.

3. I need to stop aggressively seeking clarification with an assumption that Reis is out to protect his own desires, when he suggests something that I disagree with. Usually, he suggests it for my good.

4. PUT THE PHONE DOWN. It kills the little moments.

5. It’s beneficial to take on jobs where your strengths lie, regardless of stereotypical gender roles. For example, Reis makes the bed and I drive when we go into the city. They are both jobs we enjoy doing, but the other dislikes. We’ve found lots of instances like this.

Reis’s list:

1. Last year I learnt that Amy’s love language was quality time. This year, I’ve learnt what that entails. It’s not time where we are together at home or out with friends. It’s one on one time, dedicated to each other and out of the house.

2. In an argument, choose grace over anger. Grace is the harder choice, but ends the crazy cycle of arguing.

3.I need to talk about my feelings and experiences to Amy regardless of whether I think she has too much on her plate or not.

4. The second year of marriage was harder than the first year. I was away for 8 months. But in this time we’ve had to rely on God so much more and it’s been awesome to see him soften our hearts and change our perspectives on things.

For both of us:

5. Having more time away from home, forming our own family, we’ve developed our own ways of interacting with different situations. It’s been interesting to realise these differences when we visit our families and exciting because we can discuss what style of upbringing we want to adopt for our family. We’ve learnt there are numerous ways to parent children.

Our marriage isn’t perfect, but our God is. He will continue to teach us how to love and we’re excited to learn more this year.

To see last year’s list, click here. To see a few more wedding photos, click here and here.