Emma and Willie Cocklin

We got married 8 January 2011, 4 days before my 24th birthday and the wedding was amazing! I worked like crazy to ensure we got everything we had dreamed on (at a serious budget) and could not have asked for more. After a fantastic 10 days of honeymoon we packed up our car and drove 1400km from ‘home’ to a completely different country where I had no job lined up and knew only my husband , 2 friends from Varsity and my new in-laws and we had no house. Yeah marriage got pretty real at that point! Was I terrified? YES! Was it easy? HECK NO! Was it worth it? TOTALLY!

Three years , 2 jobs , 2 houses, a couple of fish, two dogs and a kid later we are deep in the heart of this marriage thing. And most of the time I’m still terrified and its definitely not easy but it is so completely wonderful and worth it to be married to a man who has a tender heart and works hard to support his family, and while the dynamic has changed from just the two of us against the world to the 5 of us (yes the dogs count) working through the daily drudgery of cooking, cleaning, smelly nappies and washing each day we are together is a blessing to look back on even if at the time it feels like the world was ending and we weren’t going to make it. I can see how God moved his Hand across our ‘plan’ (ok let’s get real it was more of a “jump-in and see where we end up”) by bringing the right people into our lives at precisely the right time to provide a home, a job and a church and friends to make my new country feel more familiar and even though I cried and stressed and refused.

I’m still terrified and long to be in control of my life, and hang on very tight to my petty decisions even though God hasn’t let me down yet, but am totally blessed for having someone to share it with and still think it getting married was one of the best decisions I have made and God allowed. Seeing my Husband make our Daughter giggle is more than enough proof of that.

To follow more of Emma’s writing, check out her blog over here]

[To read another story from Marriage Year 4, meet Tessa and Ashley Tuttle by clicking here]