Today is my parents 41st wedding anniversary. Forty-one years....lets just let that sink in for a minute, shall we? .......
It's inspiring to say the least. I mean we fall in love, we want to spend the rest of our lives with this person, ride off into the sunset, and live happily ever after in a house with a porch swing and a white picket fence. We want to have a family with our love. We want to grow old with them and end up being one of those elderly couples we see in the grocery store parking lot holding hands as they walk to their car.
Marriage is not easy. It's not all sunshine and roses and good times filled with laughter. Marriage takes work. It's easy to love someone. It's not always easy to remember that love in the midst of mortgage payments and bills and cars that break down. It's not so easy to remember that love at 3:00am when your lying in bed contemplating whether or not it's possible to simultaneously plug the nose of your partner that is snoring like a freight train while anticipating their awakening so you can pretend like you weren't the one who did it and you had been asleep peacefully next to them the entire time. It takes work. It takes a mutual effort to remember that love...to remember that feeling of butterflies in your stomach as you catch eyes with them across the dinner table full of screaming kids with spaghetti sauce flung all over your shirt and noodles hanging in your hair.
Marriage is worth it though. It's worth the effort. When you wake up and have crust in your eyes and a wicked case of morning breath...and your love looks at you...I mean, really looks at you...and tells you that you're beautiful...that's love. When your partner knows what you take in your coffee and what you like on your turkey sub from Subway without being told...that's love. When they have worked long hours all week long and still get up with your child on the weekend to play the role of their pancreas...just so you can sleep in....that's love.
So, I think of my parents on this day and I am in awe. I'm in awe of their love and their devotion. I'm in awe of their determination and their strength. I admire their ability to stand beside each other for 41 years...holding hands...facing whatever life has thrown their way...together...as a team...a united front.
I look at my husband and our own 11 years of marriage, and I am happy. He loves me...I mean, he really loves me. I still get butterflies when I look at him. My heart still skips a beat when I hear him tell me he loves me. We have weathered quite the storms with diabetes in our house. We have managed it though....we are a united front...we are a team...we hold hands and face things head on.
I hope 30 years from now, I can be as strong as my parents. I hope that Emma will look back on her childhood and see what I see when I think of my own parents. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! We love you and thank you for being such an incredible example of what marriage should be like.
Happy Anniversary and wishing your parents many many more :)
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