Worth Fighting For….

10 years ago, I was living in Nepal.  I was working with an organization that works amongst the poorest of the poor throughout the world.  Before I left for Nepal, I had just started dating this guy…his name was Wes.  You know where I’m going with this…

After four months of volunteering in one of my favorite places on the planet, Wes flew half way across the world to surprise me during my last week in Nepal.  I was sitting in an internet cafe, instant messaging with Wes, as was my usual daily custom (there was no facetime or skype back then…just internet phone which was insanely unreliable).  At one point, when I asked him what he was up to, he told me that he was just down the street at the Tibet Guest House.  My heart started racing and I practically fell out of my seat.  Was he joking?!  Had he actually hopped on a plane and left the States for the 2nd time in his life, without me knowing (I am the most difficult person to surprise…seriously…it’s true…poor Wes)….was he actually just down the street from me in Nepal?

I couldn’t fully believe that he was there.  I seriously thought he was joking.  I told him that the only way I would believe him was if he met me at Helena’s (a restaurant we frequented) 10 minutes from that moment.  It was super close by, and just a 2 minute walk from where he was staying, and where I was at.

Fast forward 2 hours…No Wes…I’m sitting on the sidewalk, trying to engage with the kids that live and work on the street, but I can barely focus.  Where could he be?!  How could he get lost when the restaurant was so close by?  Of course, let’s remember that Wes has only traveled outside of the States one time before, and that was only for one day with me in Paris, when I left for Nepal.  And this time, he was walking the streets of a third-world country, one that was completely different from anything he’d ever known.

Finally, my friend Sarah and I decided to go back to the Tibet Guest House to see if we might find out if Wes was actually staying there.  We walked into the lobby, asked the front desk about a Wes Mullins, and sure enough….he had checked in.  *heart pounding*

With no idea of when he would return, I ducked away into the restroom there, to catch my breath.  When I came out, there he was….standing at the far-end of the lobby, with a head full of curly brown hair and a bushy beard (he decided he wasn’t going to cut his hair or shave until he saw me again).  I took off at a full sprint, and ran into his arms.  My arms wrapped around him, and in the excitement of the moment, a couple of my glass bangals broke, and to this day I have a tiny scar from where the glass pierced my skin.  I didn’t care.  The man I loved was here…in Nepal…I could hardly believe it was real.

We spent my final week in Nepal together. I loved showing him this place that had become a part of me. The people and the culture…oh how I had grown to love this country.

At the end of our week together in Nepal, we boarded a plane and headed to Bergen, Norway. We were going to meet up with my parents and spend a week there before we got home to our “normal” lives and started working again in the States. My mother is from Bergen, and I spent most of my childhood summers there with my grandparents.

I had a feeling that at some point during our time in Nepal or Norway, Wes was going to propose. Well, one evening, as the golden midnight sun rested high in the sky at about 9:30 pm, Wes and I were taking a walk up on a mountain that we used to hike up to when I was a kid. And it was in those golden moments, that Wes pulled me to the side. As his voice began to shake, he got down on one knee, held a ring box out with a beautiful ring sitting inside of it….his entire arm that was holding the ring box was shaking back and forth…and in that beautiful, forever moment, he managed to ask me to be his wife.

Three and a half months later we were married.

And for the first five years of our marriage, we battled a very rocky marital road. We came to the table with so much hurt and baggage from our past, we didn’t know how to deal with each other. Thoughts of separation floated around, perhaps even an end to our marriage, but that was never an option for me. We fought hard through the battle…we persevered…we got hurt, fell down, and then got back up again.

And almost 10 years later, here we stand….

The wounds and scars from the battle have become less and less visible. We fought hard, and we won. God gave us the strength to persevere, and to find beauty and understanding in the most hidden places.  We cherish each other’s differences, and we have even changed, ourselves.  Somehow, we are the same people that said “I do” nearly 10 years ago, but at the same time, we are so different.  We are more patient.  We listen better.  We communicate better.  We aren’t as quick to get upset.  We dream bigger.  We love harder.

And almost 10 years later, we are choosing to say “yes” to each other again.

In July of this year, we will be traveling back to Bergen, Norway to renew our vows. This time, we will have our twins, and my parents there, with possibly a few close friends. It will be a small (I mean really small) gathering. But it will be beautiful. Perhaps we will stand on top of a mountain, as we look over the Sea. It doesn’t really matter…we are one, and we are standing together, choosing to always fight for our marriage, because it is worth it.

And yes, we will have some amazing photographers/friends with us, as well. Erich and Amy McVey will be there to capture every beautiful moment.  I couldn’t have asked a more amazing couple to be there with us to document it all on film.

I can’t wait to share it all with you when we return.  And if you’ve made it through this post in its entirety, I applaud you, and you now know us just a little bit better.

*I absolutely love this photo of us at the top of the post.  It was taken at the top of Rockefeller Center in New York City in March of this year.  Thank you to Tamiz Photography for capturing one moment of time for us.  We love you for that!