Weekend to Remember

Mick and I are headed to the Weekend to Remember marriage conference this weekend and we are so excited about it! We have been every year since we were married, minus one, last year, Emily was born the weekend of the conference, so we spent the weekend in the hospital instead ;0)

When I tell people we are going to a marriage conference, people automatically assume that our marriage is in trouble and needs work, but actually, the exact opposite is true. Who would not want to get away with their spouse, no kids, for a whole weekend that involves a date night, a love letter written to them from their spouse, encouraging words and tips and advice on making your marriage stronger? Seriously, would you wake up one morning and decide to run a 10K race without any form of training or practice...ummmm...NO! Would you wake up one morning and decide to become and amazing chef and start creating incredibly delicious creations without any form of training or schooling? Ummmm....no! So, why would one assume that creating an incredible, unbreakable bond between you and your spouse would not take some form of focus and hard work?

Mick and I have learned something new about ourselves and our marriage at each of these conferences we have attended. The first year we attended we were still in "newlywed" mode, assuming that everything in our marriage would continue to be all peachy and nice. We learned some ways to help keep our marriage feeling fresh and also some things to start thinking about when we decided to have children. The following year, Luke was about 2 months old when we went to the conference, so we were still in "zombie" mode, it was nice to re-connect and take a break from from our new role as "mom" and "dad" and just be Jessica and Mick for a few days. And sleep thru the night! The next year, Luke was about 15 months old, so we were adjusting to life with him quit nicely ;0), but we were also experiencing a very dark time in our marriage and as parents. A week before the conference we had a miscarriage and lost twins that I was pregnant with. That year the conference was hard for both of us when talking about raising children, but also a wonderful place to be, to refocus on each other and pull together during that rough patch. Last year, we were not able to attend as Emily was born the Saturday of the conference, but obviously we were thrilled to be spending that weekend at the hospital! We are very excited to be heading to the conference this afternoon and getting a break from our parental responsibilities and just focus on each other again for an entire weekend! This conference makes our marriage and love for one another grow every year, we hope that as our children grow older, they too see that the fairy tale idea of marriage is just that, a fairy tale, but if you work on making your marriage a priority, it can be pretty darn close to a fairy tale!

Have a great weekend, I know we will!!!