“You turned my mourning into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” (Psalm 30:11) 

David and I are blessed to have traveled to Puerto Rico to celebrate our first wedding anniversary on March 12th. In Spanish, we can now say, “Nos casamos el año pasado.” Translation? “We got married last year!” With our Frontier “Go Wild” passes and a $100 flight voucher, we flew round trip for $29. During our week there, we stayed in two separate locations, basking in the subtropical sunshine and crystal-clear waters of the West Indies.  

More than a vacation, this journey served as a celebration to commemorate our first year together as husband and wife. We’d been counting the days to mark this milestone for quite some time, and our patience was well rewarded with an outstanding getaway filled with love and laughter – much as our marriage has been.  

“I love being your husband,” David remarked as we awoke on our anniversary morning. “I love that you’re my wife. It was so clear.” 

“What was clear?” I asked, slowly shaking the last tendrils of sleep from my subconscious mind.  

“That God gave you to me,” David replied.  

“It had to be you,” I affirmed. “Since before we were born, it has always been you. I love you, David Robert Olson.” 

“I love you, Sara Victoria Olson,” came the consistent response. “I love you so much!” 

And so, our anniversary began – as all our days do: beautifully, blissfully, blessed.  

David and I consistently wake up snuggling and proclaiming how much we love one another every morning. It’s such an affirming way to start each day. David recognized this fantastic phenomenon early into our marriage. “I love how we always wake up the same way. Every day. So in love. I know we’ll always be this way.” And so we are.  

Every morning, David rolls onto his back, unspokenly inviting me to nestle inside the crook of his shoulder, our bodies pretzeled in our natural state of togetherness. We can never get enough kissing, hugging, and holding each other.  

“Every time feels like the first time,” David always says. ” I waited a lifetime for this and can never get enough.”   

“Me, too,” I say. “I love you so much! I am so happy. Content. Complete. You complete me, David. You are the biggest blessing of my life, and I will always love you.”  

As we enjoyed the final day of our anniversary trip to Puerto Rico, it struck me that our time there was an amplified reflection of our marriage – rejuvenating, restorative, and re-energizing.  

Looking back over our last year, I’m struck by all the incredible things we’ve done together with God’s help.

Personal milestones:

• Declared victory over David’s prostate cancer scare 
• Served with Samaritan’s Purse to help Hurricane Idalia victims in Perry, FL
• Made twelve round trips between Brunswick, GA to Virginia Beach, VA where we performed the following renovations to David’s former house:
  • Re-shingled the roof
  • Re-painted the exterior vinyl siding 
  • Added Pergo flooring to the living room, primary bedroom, office, and hallway 
  • Re-painted the living room, primary bedroom, office, bathroom, and hallway
  • Re-modeled the office to include the removal of the popcorn ceiling, re-wired and replaced the drywall on all the walls
• Removed the carpet from our primary bedroom, hallway, and living room in our Brunswick, GA home and replaced it with Pergo flooring
• Designed and built a new 10-foot by 12-foot addition onto our Brunswick, GA shed

Side-job completions:

• Re-screened a screen porch, repaired the porch door, added a new door, created concrete steps, and poured a concrete step-down pad 
• Removed an old in-ground fire-pit and created a new one with a circular paver patio
• Repaired and replaced portions of a wooden fence and fence posts
• Stripped and re-stained six wooden church doors 
• Repaired a leaking wooden barn roof 
• Rebuilt a church storage shed

Two-week Italian honeymoon:

• Visited 12 Italian cities – touring 15 chapels/basilicas, staying in 5 vacation homes and hiking over 75 total miles 
• Drove like an Italian on busy highways and narrow mountain roads
• Visited the Roman Colosseum and Forum
• Danced on a city sidewalk adjacent to the Roman Forum at dusk 
• Toured the Vatican Museums
• Participated in an Italian mass in the Roman Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica
• Survived an attempted pickpocket attempt onboard an inner-city Roman subway 
• Lived in a Medieval tower home for four nights in Assisi 
• Enjoyed a free, operatic concert featuring Mozart and Schubert in the Centuries-old Basilica of St Francis in Assisi 
• Took part in an Italian religious pageant during the festival of St. Francis on my birthday 
• Ascended and toured the crumbling, cliff-side town of Civita de Bagnoregio before it disappears 
• Stayed overnight at two agriturismo farms surrounded by private Tuscan vineyards
• Hiked seven miles up and across the seaside cliffs from Monterroso al Mare to Vernazza in Cinque Terre  
• Viewed world-renowned artwork like Michelangelo’s David in Florence and the Sistine Chapel in Rome 
• Shopped for groceries in seven local markets
• Swam in the Italian Riviera  
• Viewed the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante in Florence’s Basilica de Santa Croce
• Drove in the dark through a tiny Tuscan alleyway so small that we had to pull our rental car mirrors in to keep them from breaking off 
• Mastered the intricacies of the Italian transit system, including the Roman subway and Florentine buses  

First Christmas together:

• Celebrated in the FL Keys at David’s friend’s condo in Tavernier
• Kayaked to Kalteux Key 
• Fed Pelicans and tarpon in Islamorada
• Relived part of David’s past while visiting the hotel where he spent many fall days repainting and repairing hotel rooms for his friend, the former co-owner

Worked remotely from Oceanside, CA:

• Toured the San Diego Zoo 
• Hiked Torrey Pines Natural State Reserve to see California’s sandstone cliffs 
• Watched countless sea lions, cormorants, and pelicans frolic in and around the La Jolla shoreline
• Survived driving the San Diego freeway at rush hour

One-year wedding anniversary in Puerto Rico:

• Visited Seven Seas Beach – world renowned for its beauty  
• Hiked to the deserted and colorful Playa Colorá  
• Sat in crystal clear water near a coral reef – watching the fish play in the Reserva Natural de San Juan 
• Discovered massive, innumerable termite nests big enough for a person to sit inside 
• Witnessed wild iguanas, horses, roosters, and chickens crossing the roads 
• Hiked through the centuries-old Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan – a six-story, impregnable fort proclaimed a World Heritage site  
• Hiked a 7-mile trail in El Yunque – the only rainforest on U.S. soil  
• Discovered both freshly dug and recently covered iguana nests  
• Stood eight feet away from a female iguana that had just dug her nest in a tropical preserve  

While these highlights are tremendous, our marriage’s unquantifiable love and prolific partnership are even more impressive. It’s the small things, like those listed below, that mean the most to me: 

• Our perpetual hugs and kisses whenever we’re in close proximity to one another
• The way our heads have to touch when we pray
• The way we kiss and say “I love you” after “Amen” every time we pray 
• Our daily ritualized “Crowning Ceremony” 
• The way David looks at me with love in his eyes as I run to him after we’re apart 
• Nightly cuddle time on the couch, watching historical or British dramas we both enjoy 
• The way David sat by me in the coastal Puerto Rican forest as we both waited for an iguana to move so I could film it 
• Our shared love of kitties and all God’s creatures 
• A visceral need to continually affirm our appreciation and love for one another  
• Our joint commitment to daily Bible readings together, holding each other accountable to both God and one another 
• Being a part of “Team Olson” – the first, best, and only team I’ve ever belonged to

While we have seen and done so much in the short year we’ve had together, the little things make our relationship exceedingly precious. I’m continually in awe of the way we love each other more each day than we did the day before – which can only be thanks to God. I am so grateful. 

It had to be David. No one else could ever be what David is to me. Our love is too perfect, affirming, and precious to have come from anything else but our Heavenly Father.  

But it also had to be God – first and foremost in our lives. Without God, there would be no David and Sara – and we are forever grateful to our Creator for bringing us together. He turned our mourning into dancing – and we will never stop thanking our Heavenly Father for His precious gift of dependable, uplifting, empowering, re-energizing, unconditional love.  

And so, I end by saying, Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for saving, loving, and giving me such a precious, incomparable gift of love, love, love. I can never thank you enough. I am so undeserving and wholly humbled by such a massive life-changing gift.