Still Crazy After All These Years

This 4th of July, my hubby and I celebrated out 18th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated by spending time together talking about our favorite subject: Marriage. Our marriage actually, I thought you might like to play fly on the wall and listen in on our conversation….


Kelly: Happy Anniversary sweetie, I can’t believe it’s been 18 years!
Gus: Happy Anniversary to you, it feels more like 18 weeks to me! Thank you for marrying me.
Kelly: I am just glad you asked! How soon after we started dating, did you know that I was the girl for you?
Gus: Not long, I really didn’t know if you liked me. I kept waiting for the “you’re a nice guy but…”
Kelly: Yeah, I’m sure all my kisses and hugs really confused you!
Gus: No really, I wasn’t sure until you baked cookies for me a couple of months after we met. I told myself: “if these are soft and chewy, and not hard like hockey pucks, then I’m sunk”! And they were perfect!
Kelly: Wow! I wish I knew that was all it took to hook you; I could have saved a fortune on new clothes, new hairstyle, and make up!
Gus: I’ve always appreciated the way you take care of yourself, and the girlie girl in you. You look hot!
Kelly: Thank you! Keep those compliments coming babe.
I want to get a little serious and ask you; in looking back, what do you think was our biggest challenge in the beginning of our marriage?
Gus: For me, it was your becoming pregnant so soon after we married.
Kelly: Yeah, that was tough…it was like you married this nice, happy, content woman, and then 6 weeks later when the pregnancy hormones kicked in, you were married to psycho woman!
Gus: Before we knew you were pregnant, I thought I got the old "bait and switch”! We hadn’t really known each other long before we married, so it threw me off guard. It was more than just your change in moods; it was also the effect it had on our financial situation, and we had just blended a family. It was a lot to deal with our first year, but it all worked out. God’s timing was perfect; the baby became the glue that bonded us together and kept us focused on succeeding as a family.
What do you think was our biggest challenge in the beginning?
Kelly: For me, our biggest challenge was my two preteens. They were so used to having me to themselves for most of their lives. In less than a year’s time, they had to share me with you, and a new baby. I just assumed that they would be thrilled to finally have a dad, and a great one at that! I had no concept of the difficulty in blending a family. It took years, as we now know is typical, but we blended.
Let me ask you this; what do you wish we had done differently?
Gus: I know that if a couple came to us for Pre-Marital counseling now, that was identical to the situation we were in when we were engaged, I would tell them to slow down, to WAIT! But in all honesty, I don’t think I could have waited any longer to marry you. I just wish that we had loved the kids more…and not sweat so much over the small stuff.
Kelly: Me too honey, me too.
So where do we go from here? What’s the plan for the next 18 years?
Gus: I like to think of our future together as described in the last book from the Narnia series that C.S. Lewis wrote, The Last Battle. In the story, Aslan leads the Pevensie children to his country, telling them to go “further up and further in,” to a country which is revealed to be the “real Narnia”. For them, it was only the beginning of the true story, which goes on forever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before.
Kelly: That’s gooood! I like how you think! Now where do you think we should go to dinner tonight?
Gus: It doesn’t matter to me.
Kelly: What do you feel like eating?
Gus: I don’t care as long as its food.
Kelly: You drive me nuts sometimes do you know that?
Gus: Yes, it goes both ways, but I love you like crazy.
Kelly: Me too honey, me too.