15 Years... And counting!

This past month, Calvin and I celebrated our 15-year anniversary with a destination vow renewal back where it all started in St. Croix, USVI! As we said our vows, I gave us imaginary high-fives for making it this long. As anyone who has been in a long-term relationship, whether it be with your partner or spouse, you understand making it work long-term takes daily commitment and, dare I say, work!

One of our most effective tools for re-committing ourselves: the Marriage Planning Retreat, came out of one of the most difficult times in our marriage to-date. We were under crushing debt, doubting whether this was the right person with a brand new baby we just brought into the world.

Each year, Calvin and I make it an annual tradition to get away, just the two of us, to celebrate, reconnect and... yes... work on our marriage. I treat it almost like an Annual Business Review (yuck, I know) and throughout the year am making more of a point to check back in on our commitments to each other to see how much progress we've made. We've been doing it for the past six years and while we realized great results after the first retreat, it hasn't been until this past year where I'd say we're focused on thriving and not just surviving in our marriage and life together.

I'm grateful for this annual commitment and to the people who inspired me to start doing this like Bridgit Motes. I've shared our Marriage Planning Retreat with many people but it wasn't until some of my current colleagues adopted it for themselves and their own marriages that I realize how important of a tool it is to approach our marriage and lives more intentionally.

We are 100% a Work In Progress and still fight on the regular but just the annual time to feel closer to each other has helped us appreciate the highs and get through the lows. Here is a link to the agenda and I hope others find this useful. If you do, I'd love to hear your story! Feel free to share your own experiences with the agenda. I'm always looking for more ways to improve so if you have other tools you've employed in your own relationship please share.