I love the way you love him.

A good friend of mine wrote this on my Facebook wall recently.  One simple sentence that sums up so much.

It’s true.  I love him with every cell in my body.  We started dating fresh out of college.  I was 21 years old and we had just embarked on a 3,000-mile adventure to move across the country.  Two kids and 12+ years of marriage behind us now — it seems like a lifetime ago — yet I can still recall those early days with more vivid detail than I can remember yesterday.  We were young.  We were full of passion.  Though we both knew we wanted to go the distance,  we didn’t have it all figured out yet.  There were times when things got hard. We could have thrown in the towel.  But we never did.

I am grateful for this every day.

People ask us quite often what our secret is.  There is no secret, really.  We communicate, we reinvent, we forgive, we laugh, we grow, we put us first.  We love hard.

There are times when I am not easy to love.  I struggle with staying on task (squirrel!).  Despite feeling like all I ever do is pick up, I’m hopeless at keeping an organized house.  I can’t remember the last day that went by when I didn’t misplacing something.  These are things that drive me absolutely crazy about myself, yet he can see the perfection in my imperfections.  I feel safe unraveling in front of him.  He loves me through it all.

I love the way you love me, Kris.  There is no one in this world who makes me happier.

Real Love is the latest installment in the Keepin’ it Real series I contribute to with some other super talented photographers around the country.  Come check out what my friend Caroline Martin Photography is loving today.