nine years

Has it really been that long?  It doesn't seem possible that nine years ago I wed my beloved husband on a stormy afternoon.

Here we are, celebrating our 9th anniversary on another stormy afternoon.

It rained the day of our first date and we were caught in a deluge on the boardwalk of Asilomar Beach in Monterey, collecting shells.  My khaki pants went see-through, and Christian thought I had cute legs.  It was all history after that.

It rained the day of our wedding, surprisingly enough.  No one thought it rained here in April. We danced and dined as the water poured down the windows of the Coconut Grove ballroom in Santa Cruz.

It has rained on the majority of our anniversaries since then.  It seems like God's little reminder that He remembers.  The rain is a gift from Him, a blessing, like Holy water.  An anointing, of sort, to remind us that our marriage is set apart for Him and we have been commissioned to celebrate the life we lead together, in rain or shine.

Today we celebrated with a family day to Carmel... lunch, the beach, coffee and dessert at a cafe.  It was the four of us.  We had good intentions of going on a date without the children this evening, but we have been sick for weeks (literally), and today the babysitters are sick too.  So it was a family day.  I thought I might feel cheated of time with my spouse.  Instead, I feel rejuvenated.  We celebrated our life together, here and now, nine years in the making.  Isn't that what an anniversary should be?   It is more than just an excuse to sneak away.  It is a celebration of the life we lead together, and that life now includes a few extra bodies.

I never knew it would look like this when we started our journey together on that stormy afternoon nine years ago.  Now that I am here, I wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you, my Dear, for giving me the opportunity to share in this tremendously joyful, dirty and daring, crazy, fun, loving, tearful, silly, surreal, captivating, wild adventure with you.  You still make me giggle, and you still make me sparkle.  Let's keep doing life together.