It’s our ninth wedding anniversary today. Wahoo!
Or not really…..Darin has had a frantic week at work. He barely made our son’s school conference,
and then had to “run an errand” (aka pick up flowers for me) on the way home
from the conference. I’m not one to
judge. I did my weekly grocery shopping
today and “anniversary card for Darin” was an item on the list. We had dinner at home with our 3 boys and
Grandma, who is visiting from Michigan.
It wasn’t long ago that this type of anniversary would have left me
feeling unsatisfied and sad. But as I
cooked dinner with our favorite band playing on Pandora and my 4 guys wrestling
in the family room, I felt nothing but joy and contentment.
Life looks very different now than it did nine years
ago. We’re not so footloose and fancy
free. We’re too exhausted to practice
the type of romance that was so important in the beginning of our
relationship. But what we have built
over the last nine years is an incredible partnership. We have faced babies, cross country moves
with babies, new jobs, loss, and illness.
The result is a deep love, respect and understanding of one another that
is as tough as steel.
My Grandparents’ anniversary is two days before ours. They just celebrated 74 years of marriage,
which makes our nine years look like a night at the prom. Their relationship has never been what
society would label a romantic one. I’ve
never known of my Grandpa to give my Grandma flowers or jewelry, but their
romance is real. You see it in the way
they look at one another and the little jabs and jokes that are a reminder to
not take them too seriously. Their
romance is expressed in the number of pots of oatmeal cooked by Grandma
(27,010); in a poem written by my Grandpa; in the goodnight kiss that now requires
the help of a caretaker to wheel one of them across the room to the other.
So in this time of the Bachelor and crazy celebrity weddings,
Facebook feeds full of the most thoughtful and romantic acts by husbands, my
personal desire for diamond earrings….I’m choosing to bask in the reality of an
ordinary night. Filled with bedtime
antics, a Transformer’s Rescuebots episode, and maybe a little NBC Nightly News
if we can stay awake. God has granted us
a beautiful life together, and I’m not going to take one moment for
granted.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every
activity under the heavens.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV
Young and in love nine years ago.
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