Today is my 10-year wedding anniversary. <3
We’ve been through a lot in ten years. Besides the challenges of blending families with six kids, we’ve survived three Achilles surgeries, one heart surgery, two house floods, three totaled vehicles, cancer, and more. I don’t think this is what anyone dreams of when they promise to stick together through better or worse, but I would do it all again to be with Jim.
The struggle is what makes “happily-ever-after” so desirable. We can still be happy in spite of life’s pain.
If you read any of the reviews for my rom/com coming out later this month, you’ll see that many people mention the ending. Husband Auditions doesn’t have your traditional happily-ever-after, but I think it’s better.
My intent for this story was to write a character who feels like a failure because she’s the last of her friends to be single. But as she’s using the list of ways to find a husband printed in the 1950s, she’s also watching her first friend who got married go through a separation. Because of this experience, she chooses not to simply look for a man who will make her fairytale come true but for a man who will still love her when the fairytale falls apart.
My fairytale fell apart the year my first husband and I celebrated our ten-year anniversary. I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things this time around, and I want to use what I’ve learned to help other women make better choices.
So, in honor of Husband Auditions as well as the man who won the role of husband in my life, I thought I’d share something I’ve written that is even more important than this book. My wedding vows.
I promise to honor you like a hero.
I promise to value your dreams and make sacrifices to support them.
I promise to guide our children toward significance.
I promise to be real and true even when the real me is not pretty.
I promise to laugh at and learn from our mistakes.
I promise to fight beside you in life’s foxholes.
I promise to dance with you on the sunny days and cry with you when it rains.
I promise to always, always protect your heart.
And I promise to run by your side as we chase after God.
No matter your relationship status, you can be happy. That’s the message I want to come through all my novels. God is enough because God is love.
And today I’m so grateful He gives second chances.
Angela Ruth Strong survived breast cancer, works as a flight attendant, and uses her own crazy life experiences as inspiration for the stories she writes. Her books have earned TOP PICK in Romantic Times, been nominated for a Christy, won the Cascade Award, and become Amazon bestsellers. She and her husband also got to play extras when her novel Finding Love in Big Sky was adapted for film. To help aspiring authors, Angela started IDAhope Writers where she lives in Idaho.
Happy anniversary ❤
Hi Angela! Happy 10th Anniversary! Beautiful wedding vows. Wow adversity does make us stronger? Stay STRONG! Best wishes! Enjoy your day.
Happy Anniversary!!!
What a lovely story of God’s faithfulness! I wish you and Jim many more years of happiness together chasing God.
Happy anniversary!
Hi, Angela!
Happy anniversary! Thank you for the reminder that, while two are better together than one alone, only God is enough. I’ve found that the real fairy tale is the one where the dragons are faced and slain, where The One Ring winds up in the fires of Mount Doom even though Frodo alone can’t accomplish the task and where the peace of God isn’t always recognized until after the fact. Sometimes long after the fact. And where humility is the salve on the wounds of the heart that allow them to be bound by the great physician.
So, many happy returns of the day to you and Jim and the whole crew. And may the smile of God be unclouded by our human uncertainty and may you both know His peace in the deepest places of your hearts.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary.
Happy Anniversary to you both!
Happy Anniversary! Blessings
Congratulations, “Happy Anniversary!” I love your wedding vows, they are beautiful, Thank you for sharing them with us. Yes, married life has it’s ups and downs, but if a couple truly loves each other and stands right beside them in good times and in bad and of course make God our #1 a marriage will work out and it will be a Happily Ever after!
Happy Anniversary! The book sounds fun and I love the vows and the pictures. The real you is pretty :)
Excellent post! Love seeing your journey and how you appreciate the love and pain of each day.
Happy anniversary and love the vows and photos
Happy Anniversary to you and Jim! Glad you both decided to be brave and try a second time for your HEA. Love the vows and photos !
Such a lovely post.
Happy Aniversary. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy 10th Anniversary!! My husband & I just had our 14th wedding Anniversary & every year is very special. Hope you really enjoyed it! :)
Happy Anniversary Guys!!
Congratulations!
Here’s wishing you many more years celebrating your beautiful vows together.
Beautiful ❤️ Happy anniversary!
Happy 10th Anniversary Angela! I love that you’ve shared some wonderful pictures :-)
I’m about to start reading “Husband Auditions” and I can’t wait! Now I’m even more intrigued with the “not-so-traditional” happily-ever-after ending.
Thank you!
Thank you. <3 Love the pun since I pretty much married Jim for his name. LOL
Thank you, Trudy!
Thank you. I am blessed.
Thanks, Kim!
Thank you so much. That is beautifully said.
Thank you, Merrillee!
Thank you!
Thank you, Megan!
Thank you, Lucy!
That’s how God designed it. <3
Thank you. <3
Thank you. Some days are tough. But we’re never alone.
Thank you. Words of affirmation are my love language.
Thank you. And perhaps we are both more grateful because we both know what it’s like not to be loved.
Thank you, Mary.
Thank you, Debra.