A Journey of Fifteen Years

Wow, how time flies by. When I was sixteen, I was "sure" I would never have kids of my own. I was too enlightened for that - there were so many kids in the world already who needed love and a family, so I was going to adopt.

14 candles on the cake - but it makes the point

When I was eighteen, I added on the aspiration to join, and remain in, the military for twenty years and retire.

When I was nineteen, I met a guy who was "nice" and who made me laugh - he was the best friend of the guy I was dating at the time. He had always said he would "never" join the military, and especially not the Air Force.

And there was no way he would join and stay in for twenty!

When I was twenty-one, I married that guy. He still makes me laugh fifteen years later. He still is "nice" - but now he's all kindsa' other stuff too.

Before getting married but not by too long

Like...

- handsome

- father to six kids (baby 6 is due December 15th)

- still enlisted in the Air Force after 19 years

- married to a Navy Veteran 

- who left service after six years to stay home to watch, mentor and homeschool said kids every day

After twenty years, I've learned a secret:

God has a way of laughing at our "plans". 

with Maestro, Chef and Bruiser - 2007

And you know, I could not be happier with the way things have panned out - in spite of the fact that every single "no way, no how, never" that either of us ever spoke at 16, 17, 18 has been changed and I'm doing every one of them. Life has been an adventure. It has had more ups than downs, more treasures than trash, more fulfillment than I would have ever guessed it would.

Lately Maestro has been trying to wrap his mind around how two people can stay faithfully married for "so long" (*ahem*) and not get bored. There are so many things you can't learn about a person until you've been married for "so long". 

After knowing The White Knight for twenty years, and being married to him for fifteen, there are still things that I am learning about him and how he ticks. Still things that I learn from him, and that he learns from me. There are things to make life "comfortable", and also interesting at the same time. Every day is not an adventurous roller coaster; some days are ho-hum, but really: 

If there weren't ho-hum days in there, how would you know when the adventurous and exciting days had taken place? 

2007 - a "brief" separation

There are so many stories that make up a journey like ours. Business trips, moves to new homes, races to the midwife center or hospital to beat the "labor and delivery" clock (stopping for a meal on the way)... not too many big fights or disagreements (thankful for that!) And life is good.

A timeline of 15 years in pictures...

Buttercup about 2 hours after her birth-day

ice cream with The White Knight

the Crew around 2009

The White Knight just after Mr. Magoo was born

A Night at the Ball. 

As the song goes: Twenty years together, he still gets to me. 

Thanks, White Knight, for all the "boring" times together.