We wrote this note in the beginning of February as our "we're pregnant" announcement. I wanted to reprint it, to remind both of us of our true love for Cynthia.
For us, roses are a special symbol of love for more than the traditional reasons. As we have grown together in our marriage, we have both realized that a Rose is a very beautiful expression of Love. When we think of a Rose, we typically think of a incredibly beautiful multi-petalled flower; when we think of Love, we usually think of a warm fuzzy feeling in our stomach. But there is more to a rose than the flower, and more to love than the feelings.
There are leaves on a rose, and to us those are kinda like the mundane parts of being with one another; riding to work together, eating dinner together, being partners in our church ministries - not exactly the romantic parts of life; but made more fulfilling in our relationship with each other.
There are also the thorns on the Rose: and trust us, there are thorns in marriage, too - the disagreements, the lack of communication, etc. But we want you to know that the leaves and the flower make love & marriage so fantastic that we can completely ignore the thorns; much the same way that a young girl ignores them when she gets a Rose from her boyfriend.
And this year, we are experiencing a new kind of Love/Rose. In September, Lord willing, we will bring a new life into this world. For now we call that new life 'Noah.' We know that Noah will be a mixture of joy and pain; but we know that the joy that Noah brings will so vastly outweigh the pain, that we will be able to look back on this experience of pregnancy and birth and only see the Rose.
Happy Valentines Day;
~ joshua & shannon (& Noah)
p.s. - and yes, we are scared out of our minds at the responsibility and decisions; but we'll save that for another day... :)
For us, roses are a special symbol of love for more than the traditional reasons. As we have grown together in our marriage, we have both realized that a Rose is a very beautiful expression of Love. When we think of a Rose, we typically think of a incredibly beautiful multi-petalled flower; when we think of Love, we usually think of a warm fuzzy feeling in our stomach. But there is more to a rose than the flower, and more to love than the feelings.
There are leaves on a rose, and to us those are kinda like the mundane parts of being with one another; riding to work together, eating dinner together, being partners in our church ministries - not exactly the romantic parts of life; but made more fulfilling in our relationship with each other.
There are also the thorns on the Rose: and trust us, there are thorns in marriage, too - the disagreements, the lack of communication, etc. But we want you to know that the leaves and the flower make love & marriage so fantastic that we can completely ignore the thorns; much the same way that a young girl ignores them when she gets a Rose from her boyfriend.
And this year, we are experiencing a new kind of Love/Rose. In September, Lord willing, we will bring a new life into this world. For now we call that new life 'Noah.' We know that Noah will be a mixture of joy and pain; but we know that the joy that Noah brings will so vastly outweigh the pain, that we will be able to look back on this experience of pregnancy and birth and only see the Rose.
Happy Valentines Day;
~ joshua & shannon (& Noah)
p.s. - and yes, we are scared out of our minds at the responsibility and decisions; but we'll save that for another day... :)
4:55 PM
thanks for re-posting it. It's neat to read it again and think about the truth of those statements