24 Hours Alone

Nathan and I just celebrated our anniversary. It has been 14 years since we got married. It seems like it was just yesterday and yet it seems like this is how it has always been. Years 12 and 13 have been a bit hard. There have been times when we frustrated each other and moments when we didn't like each other very much. Things in our lives have been crazy and chaotic these past few years. It has been a few years since we were able to step away from our lives and just be the two of us. So to be here tucked away in a beautiful B &B is amazing. (We are in the Longfellow room. And in a room named that I can not help but write.)

We started our escape together with a massage and then we jetted off to this B &B which is so close to our town and yet far enough that we feel secluded. We "cooked" our own dinner at the fondue restaurant last night which was such a change for us. We sat in this tiny little nook in the restaurant, cocooned off, talking and sharing. Our normal restaurant style is Taco Bell or McDonalds with three boys, who scarf down their food at the speed of light and then can't sit still to wait for the rest of us to finish. So to sit for several hours and wait for the food and talk was magical. It was a wonderful time to remenise about who we were and how we started our lives together. We talked about our current situations and about the future. We laughed and we were silent just enjoying being together.

As usual, I was up with the sun. I tried to be still and not to wake Nathan. As I lay there, I smiled. There is no other person that I would rather walk through this life with. There is no person that knows me the way that he does. It is beautiful to be known by someone. To have him know my heart and my fears. He knows that I love ketchup on my breakfast potatoes. He knows I love no pulp in my orange juice. He knows I like flowers but not expensive ones from a florist. (A lesson from an earlier anniversary.) He knows me. And he loves me. The real me.

These 24 hours away have been priceless. They have given us moments to sit with each other and in the quiet of these moments we have recalled the reasons why we love each other. God, thank you for Nathan. Thank you for giving us to each other. Thank you for our marriage. I pray that you would strengthen it. I pray that you would make us the couple that you want us to be. Thank you for showing us how to love each other through the hard times and the good times. God, help me to be the wife that Nathan needs. Give me eyes to see his needs and the desire to meet them.