Sunday is the anniversary of the day I became a wife! 7 years ago! My sister-in-law make a comment about 7 being “the year of the promise,” and it got me thinking. Not about all the promises that you make on your wedding day, though those are good too. But about the promise of a future together. While I know that we will look back and say, 7 years?! That was nothin’! At least in comparison to the 50 or more years I hope we spend together. But 7 years, is still 7 years. And at this point, 7 years is a quarter of my life. That’s a fairly big chunk.
The first five years are kind of “newlywed” years. Learning how to live together, to love together, to grow together…and most importantly, how to stay together. Does that mean that we’ve passed some boundary where we’re no longer susceptible to disagreement or strife within our marriage? Absolutely not. But what it does mean is that we have almost a decade of foundation underneath us now to help carry us through.
I think the first couple years can be hard for the “getting used to” and accommodating to each other reasons, but the last couple years and the next decade, will probably be hard years. Not because of our marriage itself, rather where we are in our lives. He had a demanding job and often works long hours. And I’m at home. All. Day. with our 3 young children. It’s a trying time in our lives. But I’m certain these times will also contain some of our most cherished, beloved, and thought of memories of all, as well. The day we became parents. The day we became parents to a daughter. The day we lost a baby. The day we witnessed a miracle (Littlest E). The family trips. The birthday parties. The surprise birthday parties. The family movie nights. The weekend breakfasts. The staying up way too late after the kids have gone to bed, just to have an hour or two together. The laughter. The tears. The hard work. The lack of sleep… it’s all a part of the promise of the future we have together. As parents, as a family, and as partners.
Do we meet all of each other’s needs? Not always. Do things go the way we’d envisioned them? Rarely. Will life move along at a pace close to that of the speed of sound? Indefinitely. The moral of the story is this- I chose him 7 years ago and have chosen him every day since. Just as I believe he will continue to choose me as well. As long as I keep cooking. ♥
laborofwonder 
Sara,
I know that my every reply to your blogs become monotonous, HOWEVER they are always inspiring to me! My hubby and I are working on our sixth year of marriage and 8th year of loving one another. I can see the drastic (and desperate) changes we are making to have another almost 10 years together (and many more I hope). Reading your blog kind of opened up my eyeballs to see that not just the good brought us to this beautiful time in our lives. As much as I do NOT want to admit it, but the bad has contributed as well. We are have what we have and what we have is almost 10 years “foundation underneathe us” because of how we worked through our trials and loved the pleasures life has given us.
🙂 Hope you and your guy have many many lasting wonderful together years!
Thank you my dear! It means a lot to me that you keep reading and all your responses are part of why I continue to write so honestly about how marriage really works, at least how ours does! There’s a sense of comfort and solidarity in knowing we’re not the only ones facing trials in our lives!
Happy anniversary! What a lovely post about (what sounds like) a lovely relationship. 🙂
thank you! 🙂