Hello favorite people!

To Gray, From Patience: I don’t even think we were officially dating yet, and I told my mom, “If he plays his card right, I think I’m going to marry him.” Things have always just felt so easy with you. I think my heart knew you were the one even before my head wanted to admit it. As I have said before, “Loving you is so easy. You give me space to breathe and be independent, but not too much where I feel unloved. You give me advice and your opinion, but aren’t overbearing where I feel controlled. You challenge my beliefs, but not in a way that makes me feel unintelligent, and you convince me I’m good enough, even when my mind tries to tell me otherwise.” I have always loved the quote, “Its good to be loved. Its profound to be understood.” I feel so lucky to be loved by you, but I am so incredibly grateful to be fully understood by you. No one has ever made me feel more seen. I truly wish for everyone to have the kind of love and understanding that you give me. As I have said many times, my biggest fear in marriage is that we will grow into different people. But that is natural, and it will without a doubt happen. It is just up to us to try to understand each other’s perspective and to work together to love each other through it. So, those are my vows. I vow to love you, to work with you, to compromise with you. I vow to support you, and to put us first, but mostly I vow to work to understand you and I vow to love whoever you turn out to be. To Patience, From Gray: I know at this point you are probably tired of hearing the story, but that Sunday afternoon at your apartment in Arlington over six years ago now you fell asleep with your head on my chest for the first time. I knew then that I loved you. I had an inclination before, but in that moment I knew. I remember laying there, looking up at the ceiling while you drooled on my shirt, and for the first time in a long time, I was genuinely happy... with a really wet shoulder, but genuinely happy. I loved you then and I love you now. I loved you, even when I hated driving to DC. I loved you while we sat on the floor of my furniture-less house in Poquoson. I loved you when I was in Oregon and you were in California and you were so afraid we were going to grow apart. I have loved you when you were 2000 miles away and I have loved you when you were 2 feet away. I loved you even while you planned this wedding. We have spent so much time saying “I love you over there.” I am glad we can finally just say “I love you right here.” I am under no illusions about how hard marriage can be. I know we will fight. I know we will let each other down from time to time. And sometimes we might go to bed angry… as long as that means, we get to go to sleep at a reasonable hour… But I promise that even when we disagree, I will still be on your side. I promise to be the person you can count on and depend on. I promise to support you in your individual goals as well as support you as my partner in this marriage. I promise to make your life easier not harder, most of the time. I am the best version of myself with you and I want you to be able to say the same. Patience, I will love you until I die, and if there is anything after that, I will love you then too.

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