This is Us, Amy and Adrian

Thirteen years of love and friendship. I can’t imagine this crazy life without him.

I never thought I would see him again.

Adrian and I met at my 18th birthday party. I remember I was hanging out with friends and some random guys crashed my party, and one of them was Adrian. He came with his cousin who was a friend of mine. I greeted him and everyone else with a hug, because that’s the type of person I am. I’m a hugger. I guess it was the extrovert in me that just needed to be hospitable to my guests even if they weren’t invited. But after that encounter, we actually never talked again until later that year. 

We went on our first date in November to dinner and go-kart racing. I was 18 and he was 20. I remember thinking that Adrian was super quiet and very shy. He is an introvert, so the more and more we dated, the more and more we got to know each other. Then, in January 2008, we became “official” (yay!). 

During our relationship, we talked about everything from traveling, to marriage, and kids. We decided that we were going to get married, but we needed a plan first. Since Adrian is the planner and the more organized of the two of us, he set a plan in motion to save a certain amount of money to move out, plan our wedding, and have a honeymoon. We reached the magic number in 2012, four years later.

Marrying someone so different from you will cause a number of arguments.

  To say marriage started off easy is an understatement. Our first year was hard. Living with someone completely different than you is a challenge. We argued about the smallest things such as how to make a PB&J! Lol! But through all of our differences, we shared one thing in common — our values. I think that our differences in personalities complement each other, and our values unite us to be on the same page on things that matter, like our faith and children. 

We planned to wait four years until we started having kids, and in those four years, we finished school. I got my masters in counseling psychology and he got his bachelors in business. We also traveled, which mostly consisted of going to Vegas multiple times a year! Haha! We really enjoyed our marriage with just us two. We grew closer together and fell more in love. 

Learning I was pregnant...

At the end of 2015 we decided to start trying to have a baby, and by February 2016, I was pregnant. We were so ready!! And We were over the moon excited!! Everything in life was coming together just like we planned. Adrian was super helpful, and he put up with all of my crazy hormones during the pregnancy. And in October 2016, Amelia was born. She made us parents, and we couldn’t be more in love with her. Adrian and I work well as a team for the most part except for the occasional disagreements. We were willing to give up our selfish wants to raise our little human. Our next plan was to try for another baby as soon as Amelia turned two, and before I could even say okay… I was pregnant! 

This pregnancy was also fairly easy, and again, Adrian was so helpful. He was so happy when he learned we were having a boy. Everything went according to plan and Baby Luke was born. Shortly after he was born, he got sick, and this changed our family forever.

Facing trauma brought us much closer to God and each other.

While Luke was fighting for his life, Adrian and I supported each other in every way. We were vulnerable, we processed the real fear of losing our son, we prayed, and we held each other up. 

This has been the hardest time of our lives. Our life that seemed to always go according to plan completely blew up. Through our relationship, we have faced the hardest trial, but it was met with so much love and grace. I’m honestly so thankful that he is the man I’m privileged to share this life with. Adrian and I are still completely opposites in every personality test, like night and day, but we are confident that God created us for each other.

Luke is now one, Amelia is four, and we have another on the way. Nothing in life is guaranteed, we have learned to live in uncertainty with the perspective that life is very fragile. But as long as we have each other, we can withstand anything. Life has tested us with a very hard reality, but God has lifted us up and helped us grow closer together. I know we were created for each other.