joy of love: day 24

day 24 prompt: where

The idea behind this assignment was to photograph where you fell in love.

Allen and I fell in love all over NC and SC during the Summer of '99.  We were both in Spartanburg that summer but regularly wandered to the mountains, the beach, etc.  We fell in love with each other through our experiences and discovering new things together.

I fall more and more in love with Allen through experiences every single day.  On more than one occasion I have fallen back in love with Allen here:

Our home.  It isn't anything flashy or big but it's OUR home.  It's in the country, on a ridge, and we overlook the nearby mountains.  I fell in love with Allen all over again when we came to see the house before we bought it.  We stood in the back yard, looking up at the house, and knew that we would one day bring our babies home here.   We did that three time.  We also came back here after our burying our first child and yes, I even fell more with him through that process too.  I fall in love with him every night that we get to eat dinner here together as a family.  I fall in love with him all over every time I see him riding bikes in the driveway with the boys or planting a garden in our backyard or during every single home improvement project (even though we argue over the details of every single decision, cut, and detail:).

I recently fell in love with him all over again when we redecorated our master bedroom.  This is something that I have wanted to do for the nearly 9 years that we have lived here.  At first we were young and starting a family and everything else came before our room.  Then, it took us a little while to fall into the exact style we wanted.  Actually, Allen has never cared about the decor in our room.   We sleep in there.  Our eyes are closed and he's right, it really doesn't matter.  But it is important to me and Allen saw that and he helped my dream along.  And for that, I love him even more.

Our home is also where I really came to love all three of our children.  Yes, I loved them from the day they were conceived and when they were born but this is where everything happens.  This house is where we walked sick babies.  This is where we really became "us"--parents before anything else.  This is where we worry over the bumps and bruises.  This is where we have tickle fights and play hide-and-seek.  This is where our babies have become little boys.  This is where we lay on the sofa late at night and dream about the future or what the boys might become.

This is our home.  It's where I continue to fall in love with Allen, with the boys, with who I have become and am becoming....with life.