Ten

 

A decade is an peculiar amount of time. (I was going to say it's "odd", but it is in fact "even" as luck would have it.) 

In so many ways, it feels like it was just last week.  In other ways, it's remarkable how much can happen and change in ten years.

Ten years.  We spent the first year of marriage anticipating our daughter.  She was born about 3 weeks after our first anniversary (if you've ever known a lady that's 38 weeks pregnant, you can imagine how romantic that first anniversary was!).  Then somehow time went by...we bought a house to bring back to life. We made a ton of fantastic friends. We watched our daughter ride her trike, then her bike through the neighborhood.  We lost a very special dog.  We gained another dog who's pretty daggum cool in her own right.  Oh we got a weird cat too (got to give Emilie a shout out).

Ten years...swine flu, the economic bubble, ice storms, emotional storms.  A lot has happened in ten years, but because we've gone through it, learned and grown together it seems like it was all just yesterday.  Being married is not all fun and games.  It's a decision to love someone every single day, to be a united family front.  Most days, that's an easy decision.  On occasion, it's not. 

But that's the point...all the good and the bad; all the wonderful and the insane...those are the things that you only have in common with your spouse. Only time can create a relationship like that. And if you try to do it right, that's what keeps making the friendship and love deeper over the years.  There's only one person that's in the trenches with you every single day.  Worrying over fevers, celebrating career successes, rinsing dishes, packing lunches.  No one else is quite as "with" you in these moments as your spouse.

I am very much looking forward to the rest of this adventure.  Happy anniversary, Kevin!  Ten years since I married you, nineteen since I met you...it has just flown by.  

 

It's always been you.