Our Anniversary

It seems like just last week Rick and I were preparing to celebrate our 35th anniversary, and now another year has come and gone. By the time you read this column Rick and I will be a few days short of 36 years. For me it is very hard to believe. Inside I am still the giddy 17-year old who is wildly in love with her high school sweetheart.
Outside, however, I am a grandmother with two beautiful grandchildren and three adult children. How can this be? In the last year we welcomed another new baby into our family; Mylina and Steve made a move back to Baltimore; Eric and Nyki bought their first home; and Billy and Jill bought a new house as well.
We have watched my mom go through two rounds of chemotherapy for liver cancer and my sister have a very serious back surgery. Rick’s mother had a bad stroke and two other episodes whose cause hasn’t really been determined. We’ve had birthdays, vacations, long work weeks and a full year of holidays to celebrate.
We have documented our lives in photos and scrapbooks and etched special moments in our memories. And here we are, at the threshold of yet another year of marriage.
Just last weekend I spoke to a group of ladies in Richmond, Indiana, about a Joyous Marriage. I received many tips from my readers on what exactly that is and how to achieve it. There were numerous creative ideas, but the one I liked best came from one of the men in our church. He said “The best way to have a happy marriage is with a husband that can’t hear and a wife that can’t speak.”
I would have to say if the husband can’t hear, then the wife can talk all she likes. All kidding aside, a happy marriage is a wonderful thing. I listened to women tell of their unfaithful husbands, or those not committed to their relationship. I marveled at how they could continue to live in such a union. But I am not one to question another’s decisions as to what they want in their life. I can only attest that there is such a thing as a Joyous Marriage, because I live in mine daily.
I know that, God willing, we will have another remarkable year. There will be ups and downs, probably sickness and calamity, chaos and surprises. But around it all will be our undying love. Love for each other, love for God, love for our children, and love for our families. A marriage is never just two people and even at the start, it is the uniting of two families already in tact.
As time passes the blending of lives become so intertwined that it is difficult to sort who are the in-laws and who are the out-laws. We are all just one group of people sharing our lives.
And so another year is met with anticipation and promise. Happy Anniversary, Rick. I love you!