Lucky Number 7

August 12, 2008, marked lucky number 7 for Nathaniel and I as we celebrated our wedding anniversary. It really is amazing how much you can grow to love a person over the years, feel their pain, struggle with them, pray with them, encourage them, it is an experience of a lifetime.

However, I have come to the conclusion that those who believe that being married is a lifetime of a continuous state of euphoria must be one three things:
1) Never married
2) Live a complete life of luxury where every whim is cared for and there are no worries about financials, sharing responsibilities, taking care of children, etc., etc.
Or three, and my favorite....
3) Completely insane

Yes, it is true that married life has its moments of wedded bliss -- some more than others (we have been fortunate to be some of the lucky few). However, after seven glorious years I would like to hypothesize that a true marriage is actually a mixture of wedded bliss and wedded bliss-ters. Now before you say, wow, she has a negative perspective on marriage, please read on...

Hard work, dedication and a little sweat and tears usually go into anything really great. When I work on a project where I really put my heart and soul into it, I usually end of up with some kind of battle scar. And those scars remind me of the accomplishment I made and usually what to do better next time (like wear gloves when pulling weeds!!). I can look back at those experiences and say yeah it took a lot of hard work, and I got a few blisters along the way, but I "earned" them because "wow, I(we) did that!"

I guess I feel the same way about marriage. It isn't all roses and sunshine. Marriage has hurt, frustrations, sadness, and anger on occasion. But, a good marriage is balanced with passion, compromise, comedy, and yes, even euphoria. Conclusion? Marriage is the best "project" I have ever worked on and I think daily how our "team" has worked hard to pull it through -- struggling together through the challenges that life brings us and celebrating the successes. As a true workaholic - it's the best job a girl could ever have. I am proud to put a bit of hard work into it and to be an recipient of Wedded Bliss...ters!