We made it to Year 5!!! Yay!!!

If we’re being honest, this year of marriage has been both one of the most amazing years and one of our hardest yet.

Having a baby is one of the greatest joys and blessings in life. It has been so fun to watch Baby R learn and experience the world. She recently learned how to say “spider” in Chinese and now gets so excited whenever she sees a spider. When was the last time anyone got excited to see a spider!? Everyone told us this would be the year her personality shines through, and we truly see it! If we had the choice, we wouldn’t want to go back to pre-baby us.

But having a baby can also really test your marriage. We’ve had some of our worst arguments ever this year. Agreeing on how to parent can be really really hard. There are two of us, with our own opinions and our own childhood experiences, that we are trying to merge together to raise our child. Even if you talked about all the things to talk about in those “10 things to discuss with your partner before having a baby” blogs and even if you have the same beliefs and agreed on a parenting style or philosophy, you never know how you will actually be once the baby is here. It’s one thing to say you won’t negotiate with your baby during mealtime. But what about when your baby is sick or teething? And are you sure your baby is teething? Or maybe they’re just being tantrum-y…? How can you tell…?

There are so many decisions to make on any given day, and we sometimes disagree on which decision is the best path forward. Sometimes our disagreements are as trivial as which park to go to for the day and sometimes they’re as big as how to tackle discipline.

We’re sure it will only get more and more challenging as Baby R gets older and as there are *hopefully* more kids in the mix. We are learning to really lean on each other & show one another grace, to love one another even when we are absolutely burnt out & exhausted, and to ultimately trust God.

Year 6 has got a lot of big transitions waiting for us! We are eager to see what’s in store.

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