the end of an era.

Two weeks after we got married, Mark and I started at the beginning. It wasn’t new for me, but for Mark! Can you imagine? Do you remember the way it felt to enter in, not knowing the ending?

I’m sorry, let me clarify: Harry Potter, the book series. I had read the series three times by the time we got married, but Mark had never read the books. Furthermore, he’d only seen one or two of the movies.

Inspired by a friend who had read the series aloud to her husband and two teenage daughters on a long road trip out west, I offered it to Mark. What do you think about me reading Harry Potter to you, all seven books, out loud? Though perplexed, Mark is the monarch of all things fun and childlike and he agreed. It was May of 2009.

Last night we read the final pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After fifteen months of seven books, hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours, three times I had to stop and cry, many many nights sitting up late in bed when work mornings waited just a few hours around the corner, the first season of our marriage! Oddly, last night felt more like a milestone than our one year anniversary.

Two young adults, newlywed, reading a children’s book series aloud is kind of strange admittedly. But it’s kind of the way we are.

I begged Mark to let me photograph the moment:




To top it all off, Mark purchased two tickets to the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Studios, FL) and we will be road-tripping down to Orlando in September for two nights and one day at Hogwarts.