Loyalty

This weekend was exactly what we have needed lately. Friday night John and I went with our neighbors to a comedy competition at Charlie Goodnights; we laughed and laughed and laughed some more. It was perfect and we had a blast. John mentioned that we will certainly have to start making this a frequent date-night! 

Saturday my mom, dad, sister, and grandma came up to celebrate my birthday. It was rainy out so we spent the day inside playing Catchphrase (best.game.ever). Team, "two and a half men" won practically every round but Mom, Grandma, and I had a blast trying. We had a great lunch and I opened gifts. I was surprised with Godiva chocolate, a Nora Fleming platter, and two minis (see below)! We love to host at our house so I am always excited about new platters! Later in the evening we had dinner and brownies before everyone left to go home. It's always so sad to see them leave. 

Because it's summertime and John and I spend many of our weekends at the beach, we haven't been going to church services every Sunday like we typically do. Thankfully, we were able to go this weekend because I sure have missed it! This Sunday was really no different from any other service, other than the fact I cried almost the entire way through. Hormones? Life circumstances? Who knows. At one point our pastor was discussing how many new babies we have had in church lately. He goes on to mention something about a fairy visiting people at night with babies and I lost it; oh, how I wish that fairy would visit us....

The theme for our current church series is called the Superheroes of the Bible; today's service focused on Ruth and her loyalty to Naomi. Luckily, I had studied Ruth in a women's bible study last year so I had quite a bit of background knowledge of her story. Naomi lost her husband and two sons, one of which was married to Ruth. Naomi told Ruth and Orpah, her daughter-in-laws, to return home to their mothers so they could continue their life and basically, find a new husband. Orpah went home (which was expected of her) but Ruth said, "No, where you go, I go; where you live, I will live. I will love the God you love." Ruth's loyalty continues to shine as Naomi and Ruth travel to Bethlehem. I encourage you to continue to read the rest of Ruth's story - it's a short, but great one and the perfect example of loyalty! 

So I am sure you are thinking... where are you going with this? Our pastor shared examples of loyalty choices we may make within life and the whole time I continued to think about the man sitting beside of me. He has a wife who may not be able to carry the children we always talked about having. A wife who is struggling with her purpose in life. Am I a disappointment to him? Am I still the wife he aways dreamed of? In my head I have continued to ask myself why he would possibly still want to be married to me? Well today's church service just reaffirmed every sweet -unprompted- message John continues to share with everyday..... when we got married almost three years ago he made a commitment to be loyal to me, to love me in sickness or in health, until death do us part. He loves me for me and not because of what I can or can't do. His love is true and unconditionally and he is loyal. This is a worry and stress I should never have even let be a worry or a stress. Let it go, Ashley!

Isn't it amazing how God puts the right message in your life at the right time? He is so good! 

So tomorrow is the day we go in for my post op. The doctor will check my lining to see if the estrogen patches have helped at all and we will discuss our next steps. We are asking all of our prayer warriors to pray hard tonight for some good news. We need it! :)