We met at summer camp. A small presbyterian camp in northwestern New Jersey. Something drew me to him. He was so kind and stood up for the little guy. He was funny. Everyone liked him. I liked him and crazy enough he liked me back. Before we left I gave him my phone number and he called the next day.
There was no true awareness of our different races initially except from our families. We simply did not care, but our parents did at first. We were young and they did not want us to date and things were complicated. So they did not let us see each other for an entire year after one initial movie date. We spent that year on the telephone. We learned everything about each other and our connection grew so it would never be broken.
Years passed and we remained strong in our resolve to stay together despite our parents objections. There came a time that his mother said to my mother, "What if they get married?" That was the moment they both realized it might happened and accepted it probably wouldn't be so bad. Our families were the same in so many ways except the one obvious difference.
We grew up together. We matured together. We evolved together. Sometimes one would surge ahead of the other and other times we walked in step with one another.
It is not only our love that binds us, but a deep friendship. He knows me better than anyone else in the world does or ever will. I remember clearly the year I turned 26 and realized I spent half my life loving him.
When he asked me to marry him it was a planned surprise. I knew he had the ring and I knew he would ask me during a special trip to New York City, but I did not know when or how. He got down on one knee in the moonlight in central park. It is a spot I see in many television shows and movies and I always get goosebumps remembering his sweet words that poured over me and stuck like honey from the jar slow and thick.
A year later we were married. It was our 15th year together. It was our day, but he let me do it my way. I joke that I am high maintenance and he is good at maintaining me.
We honeymooned in Seattle and Alaska. He got his way by declaring, "If we go somewhere tropical you will just get sunburned and cry about it." He was so right and our trip was the trip of a lifetime! We saw whales and eagles and glaciers and ate seafood.
Living together as a married couple was slightly different and I revelled in the title of wife and he in husband. Being a newleywed was glorious and there is nothing like making a slideshow of the photos to music from the wedding to make me happy. If I could wear my princess wedding dress every day I would have.
A few years after the wedding we bought our first house and a new list of firsts began. We have had so many firsts together I cannot even count them all, but when I have flashes of memories he is there more than half the time.
One night over breakfast in our new house I uttered the words I never thought I would. "What do you think about having kids?" "I think that would be good", he said. No definitive plans but it was out there and the universe heard it. A few months later it happened.
Working out had become a new part of my routine. I said to my friend I don't remeber being this tired before. As I was drinking a glass of wine on a Friday I realized that it was possible. I finished the glass of wine and took a test and sure enough it confirmed there was a baby on the way.
He was sleeping on the couch when I came downstairs smiling and not knowing how to present the news. So I went with this, "Sit up, wake up, sit up. Are you up?...umm I am pregnant." He was in shock and then came the smile so big it almost knocked me over. This was it we were all in. After a mostly sleepless night we went to Walmart at 7am and bought four more tests to confirm.
Then I was hungry and we went out to breakfast. I asked if I could still work out and he looked it up on his smartphone and stated loudly, "You can do kegel exercises." I leaned across the table and smiled and said, "those are for your vagina." This is one of the many reasons I will always love this man.
Now I am a working mom and he is a stay at home dad and our lives together are full of ups and downs, but we are doing it all together. He loves me. I feel it in his hugs and I see it in his eyes. It is big big love. I am the luckiest girl in the world!
No comments:
Post a Comment