Forever and Ever

April 26, 1996 I met my husband. It was one of those things I wasn't looking for ~ he just showed up at my front door that day, literally. I think we knew we were in love within 24 hours. We married June 22, 1996 which turned out to be an extremely stressful day. The morning of our wedding I ended up in the emergency room because I was so sick and nervous I couldn't make it down the aisle.....wondering what I had gotten myself into. After a shot of Vitamin B and a quick up-do to my hair, all I remember is stumbling down the aisle from all of the medicine and IV's the ER had given me. His arm was in a sling because he'd fallen out of an attic and dislocated his shoulder. He was hungover from his party the night before and we were both exhausted.

2 strangers committing to each other til death did we part. In all honesty, I'm surprised neither of us killed each other after we'd gotten to really know each other. They say opposites attract and I can say that's what happened to us.

I don't know what we were thinking. He already had 2 children from a previous marriage and I had 1. Looking back it was irresponsible ~ we have each cried many tears over the other and how we weren't meeting each others expectations and our "dream" of what marriage was to be (though neither of us had a good example of what marriage was about), wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

We have come close several times to walking away, usually when things seemed impossible to overcome. We hung in there and kept our commitment because something inside us knew that this marriage was meant to be and that God had brought us together even though we had no idea why. The last 3 years have been (to me) what marriage is supposed to be. We figured it out for ourselves and have tried to become the wife/husband/parent we wanted in our lives. We found that going to church as a family is the glue, disagreements come and go, I will still pout and not tell him what's wrong, and he will always have control of the TV remote -- but that's ok.

Yesterday was our 9th anniversary.
Both of us forgot. He reminded me tonight.

Even though I feel so bad that such an important occation was overlooked, it doesn't take away from what we have. I feel that everyday is a celebration of our marriage and our family. I celebrate it everyday and don't feel that I have to wait until "the day" to say Happy Anniversary.

I am just hoping that by neither of us remembering means that we don't feel we have to add them up every year because we know that we will be counting them for a long time to come so what's #9? (Yes, I'm trying to rationalize this in my mind)

What I do know is that I have been waiting for #10 because I plan on us doing something big -- like a trip to Jamaica. It will be the 1st time for us to go anywhere alone, away from everyone and everything. Jessica was only 4 and went on our honeymoon with us so it didn't actually count as a honeymoon. It was a family vacation.

I am very proud of 9 years of marriage to this man ~ I didn't think we'd make it to the first one.

Love is amazing.