“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

At first, these words are beautiful- poetic even when you read them. But anyone who has ever been faced with the choice to give up or stick it out; to succumb to fear as opposed to holding on to faith; or to downright quit when things get really difficult understands that there is a labor that is required to achieve this type of love.  And one can not say confidently that they possess such a love until it has been tried and tested.

For me, the test came as a choice to remain committed and connected to my husband, who was heading to prison.  Before this, we had faced petty arguments and minor setbacks- and we had  “overcome” them all.  So my love had been proven, right?

To a certain degree maybe, but I have learned that it is when the test is the hardest and the fire is the hottest that we really learn what our love is made of.

Although I wasn’t sure (and some days I am still not certain) of how I would make it to the end of our prison/love test- there was always something in me that would not let me lose faith in our love; or to give up hope that we would make it to the end of this journey. Nearly four years into our sentence, we are still laboring and still standing.  This blog experience is being devoted to understanding and sharing what I have learned about finding the strength to love.