25

John and I have been married 25 years today. Just typing that number seems a little surreal...

John and I met in college.  Dated, got married, and grew up together.

We figured out the whole baby thing. (Chase, as I've mentioned before you could not have possibly had two less prepared parents. But we loved you lots!)

We figured out how to make a household work on $1000 a month.

We left friends and family behind to travel wherever the Army sent us.  (Including a 3-year stint in Central America where Bethany was added to our family.)

We figured out how to build a new life when we moved back to the States only to find out that our friends' lives had moved on without us.

We figured out how to make a household work on $29k a year when there were no jobs for college graduates with military experience. (And thanks to a $3k gift from my parents actually bought a house on that income.)

We figured out how to be together in the world.  To fight the daily battles against together-ness. We held each other when the world outside was too cold to deal with. Shared joys, disappointments, dreams, shattered illusions, aspirations and general random silliness.

Looking at the picture above, I can't help but think that we are such different people than we were back then.  And that so much of me is because of who he is--because of the roads we've traveled together.

I've come to such a better understanding of family than I had 25 years ago. John and I create the belonging.  We are each others home.

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After posting this early this morning, I saw this on Facebook...