Saturday, August 13, 2016

Scrapbook Saturday: The First Four Years

In the book, The First Four Years, novelist Laura Ingalls Wilder recounts the first four years of her marriage to Almonzo Wilder, a farmer and homesteader. Together, they try to make a go of it homesteading in South Dakota. Those years are harrowing as they face debt, a fire that destroys their home, serious illness that permanently disables Almonzo, the birth of two children, and the death of one as an infant, Throughout the book, it obvious how much the couple love another and how they face their challenges with courage and hope.

The first four years of marriage are often a proving ground for any couple and frequently determine the future for a marriage. My husband and I are halfway upon our 19th wedding anniversary. Our eldest child is two years from graduating high school and our youngest is leaving her babyhood behind. As I face all these transitions, I find myself pondering what the past 19 years have meant and what things our future holds. For some reason, I haven't felt a desire to scrapbook the present photos I have taken. Instead my heart keeps going back to those early years. Today, I pulled out photos from every little cranny and compiled photos from the first four years of my marriage--from 1998-2002.  I want to tell our stories from that period in terms of the ways that we changed and grew, since that period was like an introduction to the rest of our lives. I also want to use Stacy Julian's categories to tell stories so it isn't entirely chronological. I want to find meaningful connections that go behind describing events.



As I pondered how much I learned during that period and the changes my husband and I made, I couldn't help by think of Wilder's book about the first years of her marriage. It really was an introductory period where we lived in Utah and started our family. I feel all kinds of excitement to go over these pictures and record stories and thoughts about those years. I decided to first concentrate on our engagement and wedding and tell our love story.



Here are some stories I want to tell:

  • Our dating story
  • The location of our wedding and we chose it
  • Brent's proposal
  • Our lives before we got married
  • Our honeymoon
  • The wedding day
  • My dress 
  • Friends who attended
  • Why we chose our wedding date
  • Joining our two families together
  • Things that attracted me to Brent
  • How we fell in love
I'm so excited to work on this album!

© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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