A Book of Letters

Let me start at the beginning. I read a book in 2008 that pretty much changed my life. The book was called When God Writes Your Love Story. It made me see my romantic life in a whole new light and opened my eyes up to the reality that my future husband was out there somewhere. The choices I was making that very day were choices that would one day impact this man. As a tanginble way of reminding myself of that, I had an idea to start a journal- a series of letters to my future unknown husband. (That "unknown" part is kinda funny, because I already knew Brandon, I just had no idea he'd become my husband!)

BUT...being the procrastinator I can be, I didn't do it. Brandon and I started dating and I remembered that journal. I had a feeling that he was the ONE, so I started writing. I remember agonizing over picking out the perfect journal- a manly, sturdy one that would stand the test of time.

I started it in mid-2009. My entries were pretty frequent at first, but trickled off just a bit in the last 2 years. I really wished I had written more. My original intention was to give Brandon the journal on our wedding day, but I didn't because I didn't feel like I had written enough.

The funny thing is that this journal has been sitting on our bookshelf for the past year. I never tried to hide it, but he just never picked it up. In our first year of marriage, I certainly didn't write as much as I would have liked to. I felt kind of like a failure and considered scrapping the whole things (yeah...sometimes I can be a little "all or nothing"). But you know what? The words that were in there from more than two years ago were still meaningful despite the fact that I didn't keep it up like I had intended.

I'm sad I didn't write in it the night of our engagement or on our wedding day. I mean, how cool would it be to look back on the giddiness that were those two occassions? But then I started thinking about the future. We have so much ahead of us- buying our first house, having our first baby, and just the everyday goodness of life, and that stuff is certainly worth capturing!

I've been keeping random mementos and writing down details about our life- details our memories might soon lose. Sometimes you think "I'll always remember this", but the older I get, the more I realize how the small details can fade (you don't even want to know how many times I've had to ask Brandon what our first dance song was! I know, I'm really bad). I don't really get too fancy with decorating it. I simply glue or tape things in. I like the simplicity of the photos, miscellaneous scraps and handwritten words.


The plan is that I'll continue writing and will give the book to Brandon to read each anniversary.

Want to start your own book? Just do it! It doesn't matter if you're single, newlywed, married for 2 years or 22. They will love it. And you will too.

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