Dear Mark,

This year we will have been married for 10 years.  Of all the things that I am thankful for, the number one is your faithfulness.

 When I married you, we both stood there promising our lives to one another, believing God had big things for us, not naïve to struggles, but naïve to the reality of married life.  Since then we have lived in eight different houses, in four different countries, on two different continents. We have gone through four pregnancies and births, both the joy and the grief.  We have gone through times of hope and excitement, breakthrough and on-the-edge last minute answers to prayer.  We have shared loneliness, anger, rejection and frustrations whilst choosing to live in a country we are only now beginning to understand.  We have begun to raise three adorable, exhausting, overwhelming, inspiring, tender-hearted and determined boys.  We have passed through days when I, at least, wondered if we would make it, if it was worth it, if marriage was meant to be this hard.  And you have remained, at my side, faithful, refusing to look at the obstacles and acknowledge them as more powerful than God.  You have prayed for me through your frustrations and served me in my exhaustion.  You have stood by me through all of it.  Never even considering giving up.  Through disappointments and friendships which have come and gone.  You have stuck to our covenant and showed me Christ in that.  And God has shown me the power of covenant to encourage faithfulness.  And I know.  I know that you are only faithful through His grace and through understanding His commitment to you and choosing to say “yes” to Him.  But, thank you for saying “yes” to Him daily.  Because faithfulness is not just about living in the same house or sleeping in the same bed.  Faithfulness is daily choosing to love even when you are exhausted, frustrated, sick and distracted.  Thank you for choosing faithfulness. 

I love you.

Anna