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I’m not discounting finding love again or finding it later in life. I’m not saying blended families aren’t beautiful, or any journey to love is greater than another. I have only been on one side, and that side is with you. And I stand here thinking back on all these years, with bias I say, there is something to be said about building a life together.

About meeting young, and naive. Believing you are invincible, and your love is untouchable. Starting together with nothing more than a small bank account and big world full of dreams. Staying up late talking for hours and lying in bed all morning with a whole new conversation we’ve never had before. Making out on your old blue college couch and bringing home our first dog. The problems we thought were big are laughable now, but they taught us the meaning of being there for each other.

There is something to be said about building a life together.

Celebrating a 25th birthday on the beach in Jamaica. Painting walls and hanging pictures in a starter home. Congratulating one another on new job promotions or career changes. Planning a wedding and beginning a life. Watching all our friends around us making these changes too. Realizing we are getting older but are still young enough to figure it out.

There is something to be said about building a life together.

Holding my hand as I scream ungodly words in the name of pain. Seeing you hold him for the first time. Watching that old dog of ours sniff this noisy little human in that starter house we made a home. Figuring out what being a parent is, together. Juggling work and careers. Realizing that something must give, someone must give, and adjusting. Whisper fights at 2 a.m. and way less sex than we could have imagined. Its heavier than we prepared ourselves for. In-between the little sleep and a lot of worries we catch our breath and look around—how are we going to do all this?

There is something to be said about building a life together.

Hello to our 30s. A toddler, a baby, and saying goodbye to that old dog. A new house, a new dog, a growing business, a lot of change. Then life throws a punch and we pack on the ice. We lose things, and people we never imagined. We accomplish things we never knew were possible. The kids grow, and we adjust again. We grow apart and find each other again. There are forgotten dreams along the way, and I know a little resentment sits with that, but I can’t believe we created all this. 

There is something to be said about building a life together.

About doing this with you from the ground up. About sharing every monumental experiencing and allowing each other grace through those changes. Watching our babies grow and sharing that joy. Whether we are walking with holes in our shoes or riding in a big fancy limo, we know we will have the other one beside us. We have grown and we have given, but we have gained more than I know we thought was possible.

And I can’t think of building this life with anyone but you. 

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Kayla Friehe

Kayla Friehe is a wife and mother of two young boys. She loves wine, chocolate, and binge watching Netflix-- sometimes all at once. In her spare time she enjoys blogging about motherhood and day dreaming of sleep. 

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