Happy Anniversary To Us | Maternity Session in Atlanta

This weekend is our 11th year anniversary and boy does it look and feel different than all the other years. For one, I’m pregnant and due in less than four weeks! We are also celebrating amid all the craziness of the corona virus pandemic. You bet I was googling “how to celebrate during the corona virus”. Many of the suggestions that came up were things I’ve actually already been doing (on the weekends) just to change it up at home since things can get so mundane being home everyday.

Instead of having an anniversary portrait session like we try to do every other year I’m sharing our maternity session that we did last month. Like I said, it really is different this year but it’s so so special. We are more than thrilled with the expectant arrival of this little one.

Vu and I have been together for thirteen years and celebrating eleven years of marriage. It seems like I say the same thing over and over again about how I feel about my marriage with Vu and it sure seems like it’s all been said before. We have had some hard times and some strong disagreements but I’ll tell you…the number ONE thing I love most about Vu and admire so so much is how he is all heart in the way he fights to make this marriage work. Fight is such an interesting word here because he really is the most patient man I know. He’s very patient with me and very forgiving. When we disagree and can’t see eye to eye he picks his battles and always allows me the space and time that I need to figure things out. One of our friends said to me, “I love how you and Vu always talk things out and make decisions together.” And that’s what we do. What we’ve learned in our marriage is that we both have our own opinions and it’s okay to have differing ones. We don’t belittle each other for thinking otherwise. Compromising is not the same as settling. I truly believe that’s where pride and stubbornness sneaks in. The world tells you not to settle, put your feelings first, but to us, compromising isn’t settling. It’s letting the other person know that their feelings matter too and you’ll do what it takes to ensure they know it to the fullest. No matter what rough patches we go through, it never outweighs how good we are together, how we laugh at the dumbest things together. How we come to a resolution together and how we continue to love one another despite our shortcomings.

My good friend Steven Wallace of Steven Wallace Photography took these beautiful photos of us. I love this session so much. It means everything to me. My dear friends know what a journey it has been for us getting to where we are today in our trying to conceive story and this session is just a reflection of how amazing and good God really is. We are ever so grateful for this collection. I love seeing us in this chapter of life. We may be celebrating it differently, not traveling or doing fine dining. But the excitement is still ever so strong. Each year is a testimony of how deep our love is and how much we’ve grown collectively. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what we’re doing the day of our anniversary but I know whatever it is that we do, we’ll have a great time and we’ll share with each other our version of how we met (one of my favorite things to reflect on). And what really makes it even more special is that this anniversary we’re sharing it with our expectant baby boy! What a lovely lovely 11th year anniversary!

“Love grows more tremendously full, swift, poignant, as the years multiply.” ~ Zane Grey