copper and wool

It's a love story people! August 25th marks our 7th year of marriage. Seven whole whopping years. It doesn't seem like enough really. I feel like I've been with this man forever [but in a good way] :) I can still remember the very first day I saw his sweet face. We were at Liberty Bible Church...he came in late and sat right next to me during service. It was like magic was in the air. We might have even shared a Bible that day... [awwww]. I saw him later in the lobby, someone introduced him to a friend standing next to me. But no one ever introduced us. We just stole glances at one another thru the crowds of friends. That image of him standing against that wall in the Liberty lobby will forever be burned into my brain. I could have married him right then...{**swoon**}

Our paths crossed again later that day at a baseball game. We finally spoke. I remember how perfect the moment seemed. He was playing baseball...it was a gorgeous day...love was in the air...and then THUD. Derek had a head on collision with another guy on the field. It was NOT pretty...let me tell ya. And that pretty much sums up the story of our lives...lol. An amazing love story with a surprising THUD every now again...clearly sent by God to keep our heads out of the clouds.

From there it was lots of googaley eyes and smiling ear to ear...and driving around in his truck with me sitting in the middle of the benchseat...and talking on the phone for entire nights and then dragging ourselves to work without any sleep. Thank goodness we met and married within a year. Otherwise the people around us might have seriously died from our giddiness. No joke. We layed it on THICK :)

look at us lovebirds.
this was when he would get mad if i wasn't sitting next to him.
like i mean RIGHT next to him.

We went to one of our favorite places last night to celebrate this love story of ours...Heston's Bar and Grill in New Buffalo. We LOVE that place. It's simple and full of giant slabs of yummy meat. And they basically have no vegetables on the menu. It's our dream place :) 

We sat and munched on cheese and crackers and ate coconut shrimp and sent funny text messages to our very best friends on earth {Luke and Michelle}. I think the waitress was annoyed with us...who goes out to dinner and texts people? WE DO. Not normally though. On normal nights we don't touch our phones during dinner. But on a night when we celebrate our wedding, our life together...let it be known that WE TEXT THOSE TWO PEOPLE. I hope we do it for the rest of our lives...send them messages from wherever we are on our anniversary. They've been with us thru it all. From THUD number one to the latest and biggest of all THUDS...and everything in between. They're woven into this story of us.

I secretly snapped a picture of the old couple sitting near us at Heston's last night and sent it to them while we ate. Knowing one day it will be us. All four of us...old and silver haired with faces full of laugh lines that show we really lived this gift called life. I can just see us sitting there talking about our grandkids and our yards and about the good old days when we would can pickles and relish and jams on a whim while kids tore thru the house laughing and fighting. And the guys will be sitting there and smile those goofy grins at each other and will be totally drinking beers, both still probably packing heat and dreaming about old trucks.

see what I mean about beer and goofy grins and staring at each other???

We were married at their house, you know. In their YARD. It was one of the best days of my life. Perfect really. It rained hard that morning...but just hard enough to make the grass the most beautiful green color imaginable that afternoon. I remember everyone being worried around us...that RAIN. The chairs would be wet, it could be muddy; we hadn't really planned for a storm. It was an outside wedding and reception. But you know, ask anyone around us, we didn't care. We were ready to dance in the rain...make the most of whatever the day brought. And, oh did we dance. Like only the crazy Gora family can.

I thought a more lovie pic would be better here
than one of Bob doing his famous floor crawl :)

So here we are. We made it to another anniversary. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for. It's been quite a year, right? We're on the backside of another unplanned torrential downpour...one that wore heavy on our hearts but in the end has refined our very souls. That RAIN. It's hard to see thru but it really does make the ol' grass greener. I'm looking forward to what the future holds for the little family of ours...all the good [and hard] years ahead. To the dinners out at Heston's Bar with our bestest of friends...to all the mornings ahead sitting on our porch reading our Bibles and listening to the leaves rustle while the kids crawl all over us...and to the nights ahead where the only THUD we hear is Rigby falling out of bed [this totally just happened by the way!].

Happy anniversary to my camoflauge wearing, beer loving, THUD surviving dream of a husband.

Love you babe. xo.