When I started my marriage almost 7 years ago, I was sad to discover that I didn’t know a lot of older couples with successful marriages. To this day, I still only know a few.

With the amount of divorces today, I have a feeling that a lot of couples my age are in the same boat. I’d like to connect and learn from older couples who have gone before and navigated through life’s difficulties and managed to come through the other side with their marriage and their love for one another intact. I thought how fun would it be to find and interview these kinds of couples and share with all of you what I learn. Thanks to the interwebs, I discovered there was somebody already doing it!

Emily Westbrooks of the From China Village blog does a series on Snippet and Ink entitled Snapshots Of A Marriage. I immediately contacted Emily to see if she would be willing to share her process with me. She was more than willing! I love people who share! And I love people who also want to celebrate love and marriage. Emily thought the best way for us to learn from her was to be interviewed ourselves. We were thrilled for the opportunity to learn and to tell our love story.

Along with writing more consistently, I’m hoping to get started conducting my own interviews soon. Anybody know a couple I should interview? Let me know!

I’m going to start today by giving you a little piece of advice for your relationship. Feel free to take notes.

If you would like one small yet practical way to improve your relationship, I’ve got it! When an opportunity arises for you to praise your spouse in public, don’t pass it up. Whether you’re complimenting their appearance, their character, or praising them for an accomplishment – go for it! Always speak highly of each other and never ever tear each other down in the presence of others. It’s such a small thing for you to do, but I guarantee it will be huge for the person receiving the praise. You words will be a reminder for them that they are loved and respected by you.

Today I’m going to practice what I preach. I’ve always told my husband that he’s my favorite photographer in the whole world. I’m amazed at what he sees through the camera and how he is able to connect with his subject. I think he often has a hard time believing me just like I sometimes have a hard time believing him when he says nice things about me. Oh, you’re just saying that to be nice!

Two years ago, Sergio Nunez de Arco, a close friend and founder of Andean Naturals, had a vision. He wanted to connect the consumer of quinoa with the farmer who helps bring the miracle grain to their table. It was a beautiful idea! And I am thrilled that my husband was able to tell the story through his pictures. Andean Naturals accounts for a third of the quinoa sold in the United States so it’s likely that you’ve enjoyed their quinoa at some point.

Vitaliy, now that you’re work has been published in print, I hope that you’ll trust me when I tell you what a talented photographer you are. I remember being scared for you to go to Bolivia for this project, but I’m so happy that you did. I’m confident the experience stretched you not only as a photographer, but also as a person. The more that I get to know you, the more I seem to admire you. I’m excited, and terrified, to see where God takes you with that camera of yours, but I promise to do my best to get out of His way. The last thing I would ever want to do as your wife is hold you back. I love you.

If you’d like to learn more about quinoa and find a few new recipes, the article is called Rediscovering Quinoa and can be found in the April issue of Eating Well. We found the magazine at our local Whole Foods store.