And Now It’s Been 10 Years

10 years ago today, I said, “I do.”  And then he said, “I do.”

And we did.

So you see, I’m feeling a little nostalgic today.  I’m doing a retrospective of our life so to speak.

Twelve and a half years together.  Six and a half of those with kids.  And today, ten of those married.

I used to do convenient tag lines for our anniversaries.  My six year anniversary, I had our history all summed up.

I guess the more years pass, the more I struggle for a convenient label to paste on the year.  Because there’s so much wrapped up in any given year.  There were some absolutely spectacular highs this year.  We spent a wonderful week together in Yosemite over the summer.  We all traveled – from Alabama to Canada and from Vermont to Arkansas.  The kids started kindergarten and Bray and I survived doing homework (we were not ready) every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  We celebrated birthdays together and each went through supporting the other through parents surgeries.

But it was also a year full of change.  Big change for our little marriage.  And we each struggled, individually, even though it seemed we relied on each other and encouraged each other more than ever before.

This year wasn’t without marriage bumps, but they were small, and if anything, the marriage grew stronger as we’ve come to hang on to each other when the tough stuff comes.

I keep a little book every year of the things I’ve learned about this man I love, and why I love him even more.  I’m still writing the pages from this year.

I’ve said, along with thousands of marriage predecessors, that marriage is work and love is a choice.  But I have to also say, after ten years, love these days hasn’t been as much of a choice.  I wake up so utterly grateful God brought us together.  I love him when I wake up and I love him when I lay down.  I love him when I hear his voice and I love him when I see his face.

We’re no Pollyanna couple.  We fight and we bug each other and we disagree, strongly, about any number of issues.

But I trust him.

I believe him.

I respect who he is and what he stands for.

And my prayer is that I’ll still be writing all the new things I love about him at 20 years and 30 years and 40 years.

So 10 years, well, it’s been a rollercoaster year.  But I’ll take the ride with him as my partner until death do us part.