This post is 10 days over due. On July 14th Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. In another couple of weeks we will be celebrating the 8th anniversary of our first date. So we have been joking for a little while about the 7 year itch.
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Totally in love with this guy! |
Truth of the matter is, I am not going to sit here and paint a picture of total and complete honeymoon-ish bliss. The truth is, life is SO MUCH BETTER than that Honeymoon bliss. I remember when my parents were doing a bunch of marriage classes based on the book "the five love languages." I was either engaged or newly married at the time. They stated that the "love feeling" only lasts about two years. I was really taken back by this. I thought that there was no way that this feeling for Josh would ever sway or falter. I knew that what we had was going to last FOREVER!
Our truth is somewhere in between there. When you have four kids in four years, life gets busy really fast. Money gets short really fast. And putting your relationship on the back burner is really really easy to do. I have to admit that life hasn't always been peaches and roses. We got to the point where we had to work at making our marriage work. There have been countless times where the coward in me wanted to runaway. Good thing I had 4 kids in 4 years, and I wanted to be a stay at home mom--I always had a reason to stay at least one more day. And things always look better in the morning. I have never liked the advice "don't go to bed angry." Not that I have a lot, but every time I have, I always wake up with a much better perspective on the situation. When we work through things, that honeymoon feeling always comes back. It is more like a cycle than a constant feeling now. Yet, the highs are higher now!
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7 years later- even more in love with this guy!! |
I love this man now, in ways that I never could have after a year of dating. I have seen how hard he will fight for me, or my kids. I have watched tears run down his face because one of us is hurting. I have watched as he continually steps out of his comfort zone to make our lives a little better. I have watched him work all day, only to come home and help me until after the kids go to bed. I have seen him sacrifice his wants and sometimes needs only to make sure that the rest of us have what we need. I have watched him deal with my crazy pregnancy/nursing hormones with love in his eyes. He has comforted me, encouraged me, walked beside me, lifted me up, made me feel beautiful, strengthened me when I didn't think I could do something, and he always searches for ways to make me know how much he loves me.
So the only itch I want to scratch is on his back. I love my husband. 7 down, eternity to go!