love and marriage

On this day, eight years ago, Brad and I got married.  It was a perfect day, and I remember it well.  I was so excited, so confident, so in love.  Our biggest worries involved whether or not traffic would cause our guests to be late (we delayed our ceremony by 15 minutes), whether or not it would rain during our outdoor ceremony (it did not), and whether or not we'd get to eat the yummy food we'd chosen to serve for our wedding dinner (we did).

We knew nothing of mortgages, household chores, and babies - although we couldn't wait to dig in and do it together.  'Til death do us part.

We've been married for eight years, but we've known each other for more than twice as long.  He is my best friend.  He knows my quirks and I know his.  We both have a lot:)

The truth is, marriage is hard.  Really hard.  And, to us any way, it seems much harder when children are involved. There are so many decisions that have to be made about kids that you never even thought about before you had them...how to discipline, how to make sure they eat their vegetables, what school they should go to, who should take care of them if something were to happen to you both...  The list goes on and on.

It's hard to put your marriage first and to feel madly in love with someone when your life takes on a daily routine that involves feeding, cleaning, working, and then feeding and cleaning some more.  When kids are whining and talking over you and it's hard to have a conversation.  When it seems like the only time you have to spend quietly together has to be spent making decisions when you most often don't see eye to eye.

It's not easy...that's all I'm sayin'.

But it's a decision.  A promise.  We look at each other, and we watch our babies walk off in front of us as we walk around the neighborhood, and we think, "We've made this great home, we made these beautiful children, and look how far we've come!"

I saw a blog post via Kelly's Korner that I could relate to the other day, and thought I'd share.  You can visit it here.  It's a good one.  Made me think about all those times Brad has shown how devoted he is to me.  Also made me think about the times I've done similar things...it was refreshing.

At this year's Oscars, Ben Affleck got a lot of flak for calling his marriage work.  But I knew just what he meant.  It is work.  But it's good work.

We've come a long way, Baby.  I love you.  Happy Anniversary!