Happy Anniversary

I'm a "this time, "x" years ago, I was..." I like to think back to "when" and revisit times gone by. So, this time, 14 years ago, my reception was over, I was probably still at Mam and Pop's house changing out of my wedding gown and dressing into my "go away" clothes (hardly a proper trousseau but hey--I was a 90's bride!), and chomping at the bit to get to the honeymoon (blushing bride that I was!) Mark and I spent some time yesterday playing "remember when" about the wedding and honeymoon...it's amazing the little details we each recalled "You hated that corset thing", "The bear statue held a pumpkin" ,"Your dad came and found me and told me that guests were leaving and I should come in and say goodbye", "We were forced to sit with people we didn't know at the resort"...All little things that didn't make or break the entire event but are interesting to remember.

In some ways, I still feel like that 24 year old bride...Even though our lives are pretty routine, predictable, and comfortable, there is always the "not knowing" of what may lie ahead. And at 24, even though I had certain expectations of what it would be to be married, a wife, (heck) a mother, God had other plans and our lives together have been shaped into something so far from what I expected...yet I still feel incredibly blessed! And it's only been 14 years! What do the next 14 hold???

There is a sense of adventure, angst, and still, peace in the "not knowing" when it comes to marriage (I think, anyway!) Maybe I will get pregnant?(God, please--NO!) Maybe we will take that trans-Atlantic trip to Italy? Maybe I will lose my job come October 2012 and have to shift into something completely new and different? Maybe there will be a global war and Mark and I will have to flee to parts of the world unknown??? Who the heck knows!?

What I'm thankful for, then AND now, is a spouse I can trust completely to be myself...someone who knows my goods and my bads and loves me regardless....someone who (I didn't know this time 14 years ago!) snores and prefers to cook over me (and a host of other didn't-discover-until-I-was-married-things), yet I love him ever more!

God knew what He was doing when He created the covenant of marriage. There is nothing--NOTHING--in this world that would lure me away from my first friend, my first kiss, my first date, my first...(well, you get it!) Praise God for 14 years of blessings to be married to this wonderful man...Happy Anniversary, Mark Bernard!