Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thirteen Years










Our anniversary was yesterday. We have been married thirteen years and over those thirteen years we’ve had our share of fun. Wink and nudge. I actually looked at a honeymoon picture and wondered about those two people. Did they have any inkling what was coming down the pike at them?

Our marriage has been a bumpy road, but not in the bumpy “I want off this darn thing” kind of bumpy. We’ve joked around about getting divorced, but I can’t imagine us actually doing it. The problems we’ve encountered relationship-wise have been pretty mild. There have been no affairs, unless you count the mountain biking. Oh, we may discuss pointedly and with firm voices but there’s been no fighting where punches were thrown or plates flung. No nights on the couch because of anger, but in its place, nights on the couch because of coughing or a baby sprawled all over the bed. Our life together relatively speaking has been simple.

That honeymoon period before kids seems like a dream now, but what did we do. I don’t remember doing anything. Oh, maybe we saw movies, went out with friends, but I don’t remember the movies or places we went.

Many of our bad times have been pretty funny . . . sometimes Joe didn’t see the humor, mainly because most of it was at his expense. Perhaps the Christmas tree falling over on him won’t be his favorite memory. I assume standing on the side of the road in the middle of the night changing a flat tire in a suit doesn’t rate as a goodtime but, its one of my favorite moments. He’s screaming to the heavens, “Just when you get ahead they come and take it away.” I responded with, “When were we ahead?” He’s a great straight man. I loved it when Scott switched our snowmen. Joe was just irate, thinking some hooligans had defaced ours; the snowman he’d made perfect for his little boys.

My vivid memories involve the boys. I remember waking Joe up in the middle of the night at the hospital after Gus was born just to look at our beautiful baby again. I do gratefully remember how Joe superbly coached me through Will’s 27 hour labor. I remember both of us yelling out, “What?” when the nurse said Will was a boy, we were so convinced he’d be a girl. I also remember exactly what Joe looked like when he walked into my hospital room after Griffin was born. I not only remember the moment but still feel the emotion when I think about having to tell him the baby was going to die. But Griffin didn’t die and over a month became well and he could finally come home. I remember what it felt like to have our family together under one roof.

I’m not the most sentimental and weepy person, but I am crying as I type this, not because of our scare with Griffin, yet it’s still raw emotion, but because this is our history. The story we will always have with us as a couple. I can’t imagine giving that up. Joe has truly been there for me in sickness and health, in good times and bad, and for richer and unfortunately poorer. I just couldn’t give him up and I can only hope he feels the same about me.

2 comments:

Heather Leigh said...

Happy Anniversary! 13 is, indeed, a lucky number. :-)

~Amy said...

I love how you write so true and from the heart. Brought a tear to my eye.