Today is Jeremy and my seven year wedding anniversary-- can you believe it? I certainly can't. Not to mention the fact that Jer and I have been in a relationship now for ten years, which is a third of our current lifetimes. Crazy.
I'd like to think that I've learned quite a bit over the past few years. For one thing, after seven years I've finally stopped accidentely writing my maiden name on checks! This is a major accomplishment on my part.
It's funny, because if you look at our family and total up the risk factors (military family, wounded veteran, terminally ill child), the odds of us managing to have a happy, healthy and stable marriage are probably ridiculously slim. And yet somehow our marriage is the one thing that I don't worry about over the course of any given day. I think that this is partially because I married an amazing man (seriously, how did I get so lucky?), and partially because we've jam-packed so much drama into the first seven years that we both want to hang around to find out what crazy adventure comes next.
We've done the whole "for richer, for poorer" bit. Or at least the "for poorer" part, anyway. The first year we were married, we lived on a diet that consisted almost exclusively of ramen noodles and dented cans of vegetables from the clearance bin. I worked two jobs and Jeremy had to sell plasma to keep us afloat. Things have improved in major ways for us on that end-- Jeremy no longer has to sell his bodily fluids so we can eat-- but we're certainly still not rich in the monetary sense. I'd like to think, though, that we've accomplished the "for richer" part in non-monetary ways. As trite and oversentimental as it might sound, I can't think of a treasure marriage could bring us that's more priceless than our son and our soon-to-be daughter.
Goodness knows we've done the "in sickness and in health" part too. We have way, way too much experience on the "in sickness" part than I'd like, actually. Five of the seven years of our marriage have been spent in and out of hospitals, in doctor's waiting rooms and in therapy centers. At this point I've seen significant portions of the inside of both my husband and my son, and I've learned way, way more than I ever expected to know about really obscure medical issues. Also I can resuscitate people like you wouldn't believe. I am the one you want to be standing next to if you have a heart attack in the grocery store, people-- keep that in mind.
But you know what? Overall the past seven years have been pretty great. I've watched Jeremy rise to every challenge thrown in our way and become a fantastic parent in the process; watching him interact with Connor is one of the great joys of my life. He already had the fantastic husband (and person in general) part down, so that wasn't ever an issue.
And the "love and cherish" parts of that vow we took? I've seen them every single day of our marriage, and they more than make up for the hospital room waits, all the ramen I ate and the checks I had to void and rewrite.
So happy anniversary, dear husband of mine. For better, for worse.
As long as we both shall live.
~Jess
Jess writes daily at her blog, Connor's Song.
What a beautiful post. I wish you many more happy years together. Thank you for sharing a bit of them with us -- we are blessed because of it!
ReplyDeleteA fine story of spunk, courage and heart. I'd be honored to be standing beside you in the grocery store line, hopefully without the need for CPR for anyone, including your immensely charming little son. Happy anniversary!
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