Today, I have leveled up.
I have reached that sacred milestone, the Aluminum anniversary.
Ten years ago, I stuffed my aunt's wedding dress into my old Buick and sang all the way to the church with my best friend/ maid of honor by my side. I almost ran down the aisle, pulling my father after me. He whispered, "This is your moment. Take your time"
And I whispered, "I can't wait!"
Ten years.
Seven moves.
Everything from a tiny one bedroom apartment to a rambling country house with broken windows.
Ten years.
Five jobs.
Unemployment with a toddler and 6 month pregnant wife.
Ten years.
Two kids.
Four surgeries.
We survived an underwater mortgage, a landlord who didn't believe in fixing things, countless ER visits, moving a grand piano over 2 inches of ice...
When we moved into the newly bought house in Charlotte, the previous owners had sworn to turn off the alarm service. They didn't. And as we struggled with boxes and a sobbing, tired baby boy and finding toilet paper, the alarm went off (and we're talking FOGHORN, people). And as my ears began to bleed and eight adults collapsed into balls of whimpering pain, I remembered that one of the owners had written a little code on a Post-It at closing and I knew where it was ---
-- and I turned off that Effing Alarm.
And my husband looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "I have never loved you more than I do in this moment."
The police showed up twenty minutes later. They stood in the open doorway and one of the said, "Huh. This is the weirdest burglary I've ever seen. Ya'll are bringing the stuff IN?"
Ten years. We've survived (and in my case, that's a quite literal victory).
We've learned how to fight. We've had battles over important issues like Cake, Immigration Policy, the Cat, a Book, and Another Cake (for serious).
We've learned how to love. My introvert needs time and space. I need someone to take over slicing bread for guests after I cut my finger open with the bread knife.
We've learned how to balance, how to be Us, how to be Alone, how to be a Parent, how to Adult, how to be Ridiculous, how to be Honest and Ugly and Sorry and So Happy.
And we're still learning.
I should write something Romantic - about how he is still my Hero (he is), and how he makes me feel like a Queen (he does), and how our Love will Never Die (but we will).
What I remember is the way my stomach stopped churning when I heard his voice on the phone after a college student hit our car. He was coming to hold me, and that would be Enough.
I remember still shaking from shock from a bad emergency C-section, and they wheeled me into the post-op room, and I saw him holding our baby girl, safe and sound, and I saw how they looked at each other and I knew that would be Enough.
I kissed his cheek before they took me away for yet another surgery and I told him the God's honest truth: "You have made me happier than I ever thought possible." That would be Enough.
And when the post-partum anxiety was so bad that I didn't sleep for 4 days, he was there. He held me while I hallucinated. When I whispered, "I know the ceiling fan isn't a badger! I can fix this!", he stroked my hair and murmured, "Go to sleep, love. I've got you."
That damn badger was no match for him.
I guess what I wanted to say, for the record, is that the last ten years have been so much more wild and difficult that I could have ever guessed. And I have no doubt that the next 10 years will be just as mind boggling, because it is simply what our Life is.
But I know that when I roll over in the morning, my knee will accidentally collide with the sturdy back of a forgiving husband, the sort of man who will accept my mumbled apology and will roll over to kiss my forehead.
Then, he will whisper, "Coffee?"
And I will be Home.
I can't wait.
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