Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my anniversary.  And, really, we spent it just like we do most every other Wednesday.  We got up at 5:30 am, each squeezed in a quick workout and started our morning routines.  Me getting myself ready for work before making breakfasts, packing lunches, refereeing arguments, and generally herding two children out the door while trying to minimize the yelling (theirs and mine).  Kendal is up and out the door often before said children awaken so that he can leave work in time to pick them up and chauffer them to their various after-school activities or just home for some relaxed play time before dinner.  I rush home just in time for dinner and then it's baths, books and bedtime.

Seems like the monotonous life of parents but when I reflected today on how we spent our anniversary I became fully aware of how deeply romantic that picture is.  Because isn't two people choosing to create a life together the ultimate romantic act?  We were two individuals leading separate independent lives when we met and now we're a family and not because we have children.  We decided to join lives, to come together as one.  And we do it not in the big, dramatic events that have happened in our lives but in the everyday moments.  Yes, we've endured a lot in our marriage but that's not what has made us strong.  What made us strong was choosing every single day to put this family above all else.  Choosing that no matter what, this family is what is important.  And choosing every day to not work on this marriage but to enjoy it.

So, it's not the 5:30am alarm clock that is romantic.  It's the choosing to start each day with a quick snuggle before dragging ourselves off to work out.  It's not the packing of lunches that is romantic but the sneaking treats in a lunchbox...just because.  It's not the leaving early for work every day that is romantic but the doing it because that's what it takes to create the life we want.  It's backyard smores, at-home date nights, stupid jokes, and looking for the beauty in one another.  It's these little things that have carried us through grief, loss, monotony, apathy and 5,124 days.  It makes us strong..a team..a unit and I'm so grateful for each moment of the last 14 years.

And if you're worried that we didn't celebrate at all, we did go out for ice cream!

Happy 14th anniversary to my best friend.  I love you.

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