"Love never fails"... 3 years strong!

This past Saturday Jordan & I celebrated our 3 year anniversary! Jordan had been telling me all week that he was planning a special day of surprises (he knows that I hate surprises, so he was loving it lol), I could barely contain my excitement for Saturday :) He told me to be ready by 10:30 & not a minute later! I think I woke up at 6:45 lol We took lots of pictures of our day, that I will share in this post!

First, I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures of us over the past 3 years...

This was taken the 2nd time we hung out :)

This was taken the 3rd time we hung out :)

June 11, 2008 - The night he asked me to be his gf :) Hence the huge smiles on our faces! I guess it's true what they say, what's meant to be will always find it's way.

Getting ready to head to Jordan's friend's wedding, it was our official first date :)

"He's not perfect & neither is she, but together they just might be."

Not a very good picture, but this was from our 1 year anniversary trip to Santa Cruz  :)

August 14, 2009 - The day he asked me to be his wife :)

The day we got the keys to our house!

June 11, 2010 - Our 2 year anniversary :)

August 28, 2010 - The day we said "I Do"!

 Now some pictures from our anniversary on Saturday, it was such a beautiful-amazing day...

Surprise #1 - We started out the morning getting pedicures :)

Surprise #2 - A road trip to Jamestown  & a supper yummy lunch at Smoke Cafe :)

One of my very favorite church's to photograph, I took this one with my phone :)

Beautiful.

J + J = LOVE

Love the architecture, the cross & the bells inside the tower.

Jordan :)

Jenna :)

Jordan was in heaven! lol

$9.00 for one jaw breaker!?

We never had lunch boxes that cool!

The Candy Vault

Too bad these were fake, they were cool nonetheless ;)

This cute little restaurant was right near this beautiful creek, too bad it wasn't open.

This was their elementary school!

Love him!

We really need to invest in a tripod!

Kisses!

He is the cutest :)

Made him take his sunglasses off, so I could see his baby blues!

He always insists on taking my picture! I tried to tell him that I am the photographer, I stay behind the camera lol

Therefore, I gave him this face ;)

Attempt #2 = not any better :(

Can't ever get enough of those!

The Richards :)

LOVE - LOVE - LOVE

Surprise #3 - Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, BJ's! With my bff's too :)

"You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I did." -Nicholas Sparks

It was the most beautiful day! Looking forward to the next 30 years God has in store for us :)

Love & Blessings,

J & J

Mr. Toad :)

Jenna came home last night to find this little fella in our backyard!

He was so scared & started peeing all over the place! lol

Jordan wasn't home from his softball game yet, so I just kept an eye on the little guy until he got home & could catch him! ;) We relocated him to somewhere else in our backyard, that wasn't so close to our doggies! lol I think their barking is what was scaring him so much!

Just wanted to share a little bit of our day yesterday :) Embrace nature, it's all around you... God has created some wonderful-beautiful-amazing things!

Love & Blessings,

J & J

A dose of inspiration!

Have a little faith...
"I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, "Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". I had closed my Bible, and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since." - Dwight L Moody

&

Believe...
"I believe in God like I believe in the sun. Not because I see it, but because by it I see everything."
-C.S. Lewis



Two of our favorite quotes :)

Love,
J & J

L-I-F-E

"I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow."

With all that has gone on in the past weeks, I have neglected to upload any pictures of The Richards HAPPY Happenings :)

On May 9th I came home to this little surprise from Jordan :)

This little beauty was also on the front porch! I am a lucky girl!

 When asked "why?", he simply replied; "just because" :)

On May 21st we went for a much needed date night to Put Put :)

This was taken right before I got a HOLE IN 1 :)

Poor guy... the clubs were so little he had to practically bend in half to put! lol

On June 4th, Jordan doubled as Justin Bieber ;)

He would only do something so silly, for his "gf" Alyssa, who also happened to be one of the flower girls in our wedding :) Happy 6th Birthday Alyssa! Hope your Justin Bieber birthday party was everything you dreamed!

Which brings us to today...

Tonight we went for a lovely stroll around our cute neighborhood. Today was a beautiful day, which made for a perfect evening. Love days like these :)

"Cause we're the two best friends that anyone could have!" ;)

L-I-F-E happens whether you're ready or not.
So, in the midst of sorrow, don't loose sight of your blessings.
We are surely counting all of ours twice lately :)
God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Love & Blessings,

J & J

Lessons learned...

Emotions... yuck. I often find myself trying to hide mine... I'm not all together sure why. Sometimes I guess I feel as if I can "deal with it" on my own. Since meeting Jordan, he has slowly but surely helped me to realize that it's okay to need a shoulder to cry on (especially his). With everything that has gone on in our life the past 9 months... I have had to cry on his shoulder more times than I could've ever dreamed. I know life wasn't meant to be perfect or happy all the time, then what would we have to look forward too? That's what heaven is for :) Life throws some serious curve balls, and can be very painful at times. That's why I also know God puts people in our lives for a reason... to help us grow, learn, heal, become better people, give, take, love, etc. I know that god put Jordan in my life, for many reasons. The reason I just listed, only being one of them. He has taught me so many things & I just love him so! As if you couldn't tell ;) Jordan has also said the same to me, which is indeed nice to hear. We feel that the relationship that we share with our Heavenly Father is an immeasurable gift, that we don't ever want to take for granted, for out of that relationship is how Jordan & I believe we found each other. After all, "We love because He first loved us." -1 John 4:19 So, if I can offer any piece of advice, let it be this... it's okay to need someone, you don't have to "deal with it" on your own.  Don't always try to handle everything on your own or hide your emotions. You don't always have to be strong. Let people in, let people love you, no matter how much you've been hurt by others in the past. And, don't ever forget how much God loves you & how much He always will. God's love is the ultimate love, He will never forsake you, He will never leave you. In your prayers, don't forget to thank Him, even if it's just for listening. He understands our prayers even when we cant find the words to say them. That's all for my ramblings today ;) -Jenna


Do to life's recent events, Jordan & I have found ourselves having to "check-in" with each other more lately... asking an extra "how are you feeling today?". I only speak for myself on this, but it has made me keenly aware of how much my happiness depends on Jordan's. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, it simply is. "I finally understood what true love meant... love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be." -Nicholas Sparks These 2 quotes are also favorites of ours, we have blogged about them previously... "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." -Lao Tzu Always try & give more than you receive, and be gracious even when others are not. "If today were your last, would you do what you’re doing? Or would you love more, give more, forgive more? Then do so! Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there’s no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again." -Max Lucado


Well, that's all we have to share for now, so we will end with this... Thank you Jesus for dying so that we may LIVE. You are the truest & purest form of love. We pray that all may know His love & feel the fulfillment that a relationship with Him brings.


Love & Blessings,

J & J

Normal... is there such a thing?

Well, it has been a week & 1 day since my stint in the ER. Last week felt like one of the longest weeks of my life, for so many reasons. I have slowly, but surely started to feel back to normal.... whatever that is. I am truly thanking God & attributing every ounce of how I got through last week to Him (and Jordan of course). I know that God has a plan for Jordan & I. We will have a baby when He wants us to, His timing is perfect & that is something that we are continuing to remind ourselves during this healing process. Every good & bad thing in our life is meant to teach us, sometimes we get the test first & the lesson later, other times we are lucky enough to have it the other way around. No matter what, God never leaves our side & for that, I am so grateful. I have been clinging to this quote from Hebrews lately... "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1 Faith is not mean to make things easy, it makes things possible.
 

"Life" has once again made me realize how truly blessed I am, I am surrounded by such amazing family & friends! Their love & support is an immeasurable gift. THANK YOU all, for your love, support & prayers.

Jordan & I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary this weekend! He has a little something up his sleeve that he hasn't revealed yet, but I am surely excited to find out :) I can hardly believe we have been together for 3 years, time seems to go by so slow at times & so fast at other times.

This picture was taken after the 2nd time we hung out. I think we knew even then :)

Well, I am off to catch some zzz's. Until next time blogger's :)

Love & Blessings,

Jenna

In His hands....

Is it really June 2nd? Is the year really almost half way over?! That just seems crazy! I guess a lot has happened since the beginning of the year & that's why it seems to have gone by so fast. Who knows? Jordan & I can hardly believe that we've already been married for 9 MONTHS!! Married life is amazing, we truly enjoy each other & each day we get to spend together. We feel so blessed that God brought the two of us together & continues to bless our relationship. On June 11th it will be our 3 year anniversary, it seems weird to say that... only because we can't really picture our lives without each other now. Funny how that happens :)

Well, I hesitated whether I was going to post about The Richards Happenings lately. But, I decided that writing about it may be therapeutic. Where to start... hmm.... after Grandma Vi's party & after Jordan's family left to go back home, I just couldn't seem to get enough rest... I was feeling very tired & just not myself. Jordan & I decided that maybe I should take a pregnancy test. Sure enough... 2 faint pink lines showed up! We weren't exactly sure what that meant. Later that day I took a digital test that came back "not pregnant". We were a little bewildered, the other test said that 2 lines are 2 lines, faint or not. So, that evening we went to Kaiser & took their pee test, we got the results the next morning & they also said negative. Something just didn't feel right, so I decided to take the last test we had... not really knowing what it would say. I took it & came back a few minutes later to find that it said "PREGNANT"... what?! I called Jordan immediately & we were both a little confused at this point :-/ I called Kaiser & explained to them what had happened & they said to come take a blood test. So, again we had to wait another day to find out the results!! On May 19th @ 6:30 in the morning I got an email notification from Kaiser saying that my test results were in, oh mylanta, this was the moment... I logged onto Kaiser's website & sure enough... it said POSITIVE!! I said to Jordan; "what does that mean?!" He said; "uhhh, we're pregnant!" We were both in shock-excited-anxious-nervous! We called Kaiser to confirm & they set up our first appointment. Jordan had already taken off work that day, so we went around town telling all of our immediate family & capturing their responses on video, it was an exciting day. As the news sank in, we both began to think of names, how we would decorate the room, what the baby would be & who it would look like. I was feeling pretty good, other than being tired & having to use the bathroom every 5 seconds ;) Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend, I started spotting Saturday morning, nothing extreme, but something just didn't feel right. We had a pretty low key weekend, spent time with family, went to church & planned on going to the church's Memorial Day picnic in the park, but Monday held other plans. I woke up Monday morning to heavier bleeding, Jordan immediately called the advice nurse at Kaiser & they advised us to go to the ER. Needless to say, I was freaking out!! Jordan was amazing & remained calm the entire time, which he knew I needed. We spent 5 hrs in the ER on Monday, I went through numerous exams & ultrasounds to find out nothing more then we knew before we went there. We were so frustrated & all the Dr. could say was that it was a "threatened miscarriage". A "threatened miscarriage", what is that?! He gave us some paperwork about it & I was discharged, the Dr. told us that there was nothing more we could do & that in other words, it was in God's hands. He told me to call & make a follow up appt. for Wednesday. So, I called & made the appt. & anxiously waited to see what was going to happen. Tuesday night I began to have excruciating pain, like nothing I had ever felt before. Jordan was so amazing through it all, he rubbed my back, kept telling me everything was going to be ok & that he loved me more than anything in the world. All I kept thinking was "I can do anything through Christ who strengthens me", powerful words, I never knew how powerful. The pain lasted a few hrs & we got a little bit of sleep that night. We later on found out that I was basically having contractions :-/ Jordan stayed home with me the next day so he was able to go to the Dr. with me. We had to wait all day until 4 o'clock to go, it seemed like forever! We anxiously waited in the room for the Dr. to come in, which also felt like forever. He came in & basically said that the quickest way to find out what was going on was to get blood work done so we could see what my HCG levels were, so we headed down stairs & got my blood work done, AGAIN. The Dr. said he would call me the next day & let me know what the results were, he said that it could go either way. He was very nice & explained to us that miscarriage's are very common & that 50% of pregnancies that have cramping & bleeding go on to be normal. Which brings us to today, I waited all morning to receive his call, I wouldn't let my phone out of my sight. He called a little after noon & gave me the news... my HCG levels had gone down, which meant no baby :( I swear Jordan must have ESP, he called me as I was hanging up with the Doctor. I gave him the news, and we both talked about how it was in God's hands. We were strangely calm about the whole thing, I'd like to attribute that to the great faith we have in our Lord. Since this past weekend, we had been saying that no matter what happens, it's in God's hands, He has the master plan. We are both very sad about what happened, but we find comfort in knowing that God knows all, He has a plan for us & our family. We will have a baby when He wants us too & we are okay with that. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of emotions, we have had hope, we have been sad, we have grieved. We would appreciate all of your prayers during this difficult time.

 Life is hard to understand sometimes & it's hard not to ask "why". We have taken comfort in these words...

"When your heart is so heavy that only the Lord has the strength to carry it, let Him. He can do far more with it broken, than you can do with it when it's whole." -Christi Armstrong


Love & Blessings,
J  & J