Mark and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary! I used to imagine and fantasize about what this anniversary would be like and what it would mean to me. I thought maybe we would go on some weeklong second honeymoon or spend the evening renewing our vows and dancing the night away in a beautiful dress with my dear husband, my kids and our family and close friends. Well, that didn’t happen. But, we don’t regret not having a second honeymoon or renewing our vows today.
In fact, being at the end of aviation orientation we didn’t have the means or time to do anything big. A few months ago Mark did suggest ordering ribs and pizza and dogs with cheesecake for dessert from a place we like in Chicago. We did this on our second anniversary in Alabama and had food for a week! It was so fun! But, it is also rather expensive and the food would have disappeared quickly with all these mouths we feed. So, we let the thought drop. Well, low and behold Mark got to help a guy out with a helicopter problem and he gave Mark a frozen rack of ribs that he had smoked! So, we ate our rack of ribs today with sweet potatoes and homemade cole slaw. Then to top it off we went to Brewster’s Real Ice Cream Shop! Yummm, our favorite here in NC.
It is quite a drive since we live in the country. On our long drive to Brewster’s and even still on the way home we took a bit of a tally of our lives together so far. We are so blessed! We’ve been through a lot of hard times. Some of them self induced and others not. We’ve pulled through many times when we didn’t know how and where we’d go from there. We’ve sat staring at each other wondering how to go on or how to recover from a tragedy or huge change in plans. But, here we are still holding on to the gift called life. Together. ALL together with our beautiful, healthy, lovely children. We truly couldn’t ask for anything more. We are accomplishing our goals and desires! There are many road blocks, closed doors and hard roads in this life we lead. We’ve chosen to do hard things. But, we’ve chosen to do it together. Through thick and thin. Praise be to God who gave us the strength over and over to pull through stronger on the other end.
I laugh and giggle when I think of my fantasy of our 10th anniversary. What was I thinking?! I guess I was thinking 10 years was something special and was a really long long time. Hahaha, little did I know! I just acknowledged my adult hood when I turned 30! So, well if I just grew up how in the world could this have been a long time? I’m thankful to have grown up with Mark. I look forward to the rest of our gift called life, together! At the end of this day no matter how much stress and activity is going on in the midst of our lives, we are together. I’m so blessed! Thank you God not just for the gift of life and health I have but to share it with Mark and my kids! Happy 10th anniversary Mark!