Written in Britt’s bridal scrapbook on the page titled Wedding Day Highlights:
Just five days have passed since our wedding. We left the Costa Rican beach where we were married the morning after the ceremony and drove here, to a resort built into a mountainside in the thick of the rain forest.
At the moment, Zander is off finalizing the details of the surprise he’s planning for me tomorrow—a chocolate-tasting tour. Since I’m here on our balcony, pretending not to know what he’s up to, and since someone more organized than I am (Nora) stuck this scrapbook in my suitcase, and since my memory isn’t as good as Zander’s, I figure it’s best to go ahead and record our wedding highlights now.
The perfect highlights:
The imperfect highlights:
The biggest highlight of all:
Zander.
More specifically, Zander, in his suit, with those Dickensian orphan eyes gazing at me with steadfast joy.
When I look back at our story, I can’t believe I didn’t force him to become my boyfriend when I was fourteen. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have. Only, I didn’t know it then. Nor for a long time afterward. I think that’s because God couldn’t trust me with Zander until recently. Had I fallen in love with him at fourteen, I’d have screwed it up, because I wouldn’t have understood how rare and valuable this love between us is.
It amazes me that Zander waited for me as long as he did, that he didn’t give up, get over me, and fall for someone else. I’ve told him this more than once, and he always says that he tried to get over me, but couldn’t.
It’s as if God kept my heart distant and Zander’s heart loyal until we were both ready for God’s plan to unfold.
I’m grateful. The God I’ve come to lean on understands me better than I understand myself. Ultimately, His timing was perfect. Because sitting here, on my honeymoon, with hummingbirds sipping from the flowering tree beside me, I do understand . . . down to the bottom of my soul . . . how rare and valuable this love between us is.
When I first began to fall for him, I remember worrying that loving Zander might be a liability. As it turns out, loving someone who’s trustworthy and sacrificial is not a liability. Quite the opposite. The chance to love Zander and be loved by Zander is the greatest gift of my life.
I’ll fight for him. I’ll protect him. I’ll make sure he has a place to belong and a family to belong to. I’ll put his best above my own.
Five days ago, I vowed to love and cherish him for the rest of my life, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Zander was the highlight of my wedding day.
Zander. My best friend, my husband.
Always.