Our Pod With 2 Peas: And then we had kids...

When my husband and I first met, it was a head-over-heels romance that I had previously only dreamed of in my wildest dreams. It was the kind of love that I could tell made on-lookers want to puke in their mouths a little bit. We were ga-ga for each other. Our pastor who helped us prepare for our wedding told us that we scored the highest score of any couple he had worked with in his 20 years of ministry on the compatibility test that we had to take prior to our wedding. We were so happy and things were just so perfect; I am not exaggerating.

It was the kind of thing where I would follow along like a puppy dog while my husband went to the Home Depot and I hate shopping at the Home Depot. He would come with me to Joann Fabrics, just because we wanted to be together every second of every day. I don't think we ever had a disagreement, let alone a full-fledged fight in any of our dating or early years of marriage.

And then we had kids.

We learned early on in our post-kids marriage that nothing good comes out of conversations that occur at 2am (or 3am, or 4am...) whilst trying to calm, feed, and diaper-change a crying-baby or two. Our days of sitting on the couch staring into each other's eyes for hours on end were long gone. We learned to communicate with each other through shoulder shrugs and grunts and eye rolling because we were just so tired. ALL of the time.

Being first time parents to preemie twins has humbled our marriage. We are so NOT perfect. There are more days than I'd like to admit where I haven't been a very good wife. I have been short, I have been crabby. And despite some marriage advice we received in our wedding guest book, there are days when we have gone to bed upset with one another. I am not proud of those moments at all.

What I am proud of is that we have always, always managed to make things better when things aren't quite right. And our relationship always comes out stronger in the end. We are a work in progress. We have goals for ourselves and our family that we are constantly working towards; goals that keep us moving forward together as one.

In 5 years of marriage, I would be a liar if I said it has been easy. But I am not lying when I say things have become even better than they were before. Not only is this guy a fantastic husband, he is an amazing father. And there is nothing more precious seeing your man loving on your kids, not because he should, but because he wants to. He gets up before the crack of dawn to get into work so that he can be home with us as a family in the evenings. He puts up with my OCD ways of doing things and loves me for who I am (bless him!). He is my rock and my everything. And while things were much more simple before we had kids, I find that it is some of the hardships we have endured together that makes us come out a stronger team in the end.

Happy 5 years, and many, many more.