Seventeen Years of Wedded Bliss (sprinkled in with 17 years of just plain old marriage)!

In just a few short days my husband and I will celebrate our seventeenth wedding anniversary. I am incredibly lucky that we have made it this far because we did everything wrong! We met when I was 15 (love at first sight), married when I was just 18, and then we immediately got pregnant with our girls (twins). We hardly had a moment to breathe and just enjoy one another’s company before we piled on the incredible stress of being responsible for two newborns. It was DIFFICULT! When I think back to those hard times though, I know without a doubt that even though I was just a stupid kid I made the best decision of my life when I accepted Tracy’s proposal. Our life is much easier now so while I still love and appreciate him immensely it is somewhat easier to look back for the deep reasons why.

In 1995 we had very little (nothing), and when I got pregnant we moved in with his parents to save money for a down payment on our first home. He took a second job to expedite the process and when I was put on bed rest he made sure I was as comfortable as possible, which included trips home between jobs to bring me a new book or movie. I of course was never comfortable (couldn’t breathe with two babies up in my rib cage) but it was sweet of him to try. When the girls came seven weeks early he stayed by our side and kept me sane when all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself, because I didn’t have the perfect delivery I had hoped for. New mothers are the worse about making up reasons to feel inadequate (I even felt bad that I had two at once so I couldn’t give them each undivided attention)! Then when we finally got to take our girls home they had to be fed every four hours. My in-laws offered to help and to even keep one or both of the babies in their room but my husband wouldn’t let them (he must have caught my insanity). Even though he had to leave for his first job at 5 am, he got up with me throughout the night for feedings and whatever else our girls needed. He was and still is an incredible dad, and that is one of the top ten reasons why I love him so much (#3).

While I love my husband and he has done many things right he is still no saint. I have yet to meet anyone who has a perfect relationship unless they have only known each other for a month and then it just doesn’t count. I think the main thing that has saved us from walking (running) away from each other is our sense of humor. We laugh a lot and many times (most of the time) it is at each other. I think a sense of humor is hugely important in any long term relationship (it comes in handy when dealing with my mother also). Our marriage hasn’t been perfect but it has gotten better and that makes me incredibly optimistic about our future. Soon we won’t have children at home to take care of and all that “us” time we missed out on in the beginning we will get to catch up on. We already have a lot of plans and what’s keeping us smiling these days is trying to keep those plans from our teenagers. They are going to be so mad when we leave for Germany (Tschüs)!