I can't say I love him as much as on our wedding day...

How's that for an anniversary declaration?  "Hey babe!  Happy anniversary!  I can't believe it has been four years... I absolutely do not love you as much as I did on our wedding day."

Well, anyone who knows Alex and me can figure out where this is going.  No, I most certainly do not love my husband less than I did when we said "I do" four amazing years ago.  But I don't love him "just as much" as I did on that day, either.  In fact, I find the "I'm just as much in love with you as I was back then" sentiment (taken literally) to be a profoundly sad one.  If I haven't learned to grow in my love for my husband in these last four years, then I have seriously been slacking.  I mean, it would take a conscious effort to not love him more as I've gotten to know him even better and have seen what an amazing husband and father he is.  I loved him an awful lot when he proposed to me with candles and music and roses and champagne.  I love him so much more as he's daily dying to self to care for a feisty toddler, an energetic preschooler, and an overly emotional pregnant wife!  And I trust that by the grace of the sacrament of our marriage I will continue to love him more and better until, God willing, we are perfectly united in loving God in heaven.

maybe a little ways to go before perfect union...

It reminds me of what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13: "But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away... For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood" (vv. 10 and 12).  The more I understand, and the more fully I am understood, the more I love.  When I married Alex I certainly knew enough to know I loved him; every day I learn a little bit more and love a little bit more.  I knew he would be a great father from watching him interact with his niece; now I marvel over and over at what an incredible father he is every time I see him interact with our boys.  And so on and so forth :)

Happy anniversary my love--here's to many more years of learning to love!