Happy Anniversary

Today is Ryan and my 9th Wedding Anniversary.  Nine years ago today I was sitting in my blue house in Broad Ripple, hanging out with my dear friend and attendant Traci, gearing up for a pretty big day.  We married at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and it was a beautiful, hot day.  Ryan is the more eloquent writer of the two of us - he'll belt out some of the most beautiful prose and I'm more of a "love you babe," type of person.  When we watch emotional movies, he is more likely of the two of us to cry and I hate to admit he is much more of a snuggler than I am.  If you would of told me that we'd be at this point right now, when I first met Ryan 15 years ago, I wouldn't believe you, neither would he.  Not that we weren't great friends, but what we thought would be the perfect person for us, and what actually was, were two different things.  If you asked either one of us though, we wouldn't have taken a different path.  We wouldn't have been able to handle what we have at 17 and 19 - and we wouldn't be who we are now without the people we encountered through our years at college.  I know everyone says "I married my best friend," but for us it was doubly true and because of that we were a hair trigger shy to date at all.  I can't speak for Ryan, but I didn't want to lose him if things didn't work out on the dating end.  Fortunately for us it did work out and I feel blessed every day to have him in my life.  I have friends who get frustrated when their husbands are home from work, with all honesty, I wish we were independently wealth so that he could stay home every single day.  When he was laid off and at home last summer, although it was a stressful time, I loved having him here.  Retirement can't come fast enough.

We've encountered over the years friends that have lost their spouses to disease, friends that have divorced or faced infidelities.  With each of those experiences I embrace what I have with Ryan more and more.  See, I know whether it is in this life or the next we'll be together for eternity.  Ryan matches my soul with such perfection, I just can't help, but call it miraculous.  So with that, I say Happy Anniversary, I love you babe!

photo credit to my lovely friend Leslie Webber