This anniversary is going to be one for the books. At least I hope we never have an anniversary like this one again. On our first marriage anniversary, my face was recovering from a poor miscommunication at a golf outing that resulting in some barley noticeable but permeant scaring. This year, I am three days post op of extracting 4 wisdom teeth and my poor husband has been bed ridden with an infected cyst for the last few days. Needless to say, we are never too old to need our moms. I am so grateful that we are close enough to our parents and can rely on them when we need them, even in our adult life. My mom was there to take me to my surgery and stick around to help through the first changing of my gauze, while my dad helped rig up a beautiful ice pack accessory for me. Nick’s mom and step dad made devious soft food that we could easily reheat. And his dad came to mow our lawn while we healed and rested.

On our anniversary morning, we celebrated with a small kiss and then loaded Nick into the car to head to his surgical consultation where we learned he was going to prepped for surgery in a few short hours. It isn’t something I would chalk up to the most romantic anniversary but he did get to wear a cotton gown at the office so there was some tradition there (2nd Anniversary = Cotton). I still can’t really eat solid foods so I packed up my work computer and headed to the waiting room where I stress ate 3 pudding cups. It’s a time we will likely look back on and laugh about or use it to relate to others who are going through unexpected curveballs from life. But it does remind us a little bit of why we both chose to unite into marriage and life this life together.

In the past two years since we’ve said our “I dos”, we have gotten our perfect little puppy and bought our first home together. We seen each other through new jobs, raises, new responsibilities, and have grasped on to new opportunities that have presented themselves to us. We have also bickered, lost loved ones, disagreed with each other, leaned on each other, supported each other, and learned new things about ourselves that encourage us to continue to grow together. It isn’t always so easy. Sometimes I wish Nick was a mind reader. Sometimes I wish I knew exactly what I needed so that I could just tell him. Sometimes life is just a lot and we know we will get through it, but we don’t always know how.

And if I have learned anything about my marriage (and life in general) in the past two years, it’s that the “how” is never what I expect it to be. I can mentally prepare for any of life’s curveballs but when I am finally up to bat, I am just closing my eyes and taking a swing. We never know how things will truly affect us until we are forced to go through something. And while we have seen some dark days the past two years, the days of light are far more prevalent and come a lot more frequently knowing that I can trust my life partner. Knowing that each day we are both just trying our best to grow individually and with each other. I know life has a lot more in store for us, and I know we will continue to celebrate the little things - and that will get us through everything else we face.

So to anyone else out there celebrating love today, congratulations. May life always have a way of keeping you on your toes, then grounding you back to Earth. XOXO