Twenty years?
A lot can happen in 20 years. You are born, go to school, graduate school, and move on to college in that time span. In other words, it seems like a long time, but goes by in a flash. On May 26, my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I'm not exactly sure how that many years have flown by.It seems like yesterday that I graduated from high school, made my way to Texas in VS, and met George. As a 20-year-old, life stretches ahead of you in a long and winding curve. You see nothing but time and space to do with your life as you wish, but life has a way of throwing curve balls at you.
As I took off on that plane to Texas, leaving home for the first time, I could picture in my mind what I wanted to do. Travel was first and foremost. The VS assignment was for three months, and then I wanted to just go! Put my feet on the road of life and let it take me.
I met George one month after I arrived in Texas and little did I know that my life was taking a different path. It had already turned a different path when my first assignment in Phoenix didn't work out – they changed it to San Antonio, Texas. I believe that's called destiny/God at work.
When my VS term was over and I went back to Ohio, my thoughts were tumbling. I had left George there, too, not knowing what would become of us. The day I arrived home, though, George decided that for us. This was the time before everyone had cell phones, 1988 to be exact. He called me about one hour after I walked in my front door. My heart was lost.
I worked for a year at home, visiting whenever one of us could fly to the other. In August of 1989, we left for Mexico. I watched my house in Berlin disappear into the rearview mirror. My little blue Mercury Lynx was stuffed, and my heart was full to bursting. It was the ultimate road trip. We wound our way through the south, into Texas, and finally crossed into Mexico. Two more days southward, and we arrived at his home.
We were engaged at that time, and the whole trip was to prepare for our wedding. We stayed in his little town, with his parents, and I learned a whole new side to him. We were crazy – and in love. We stayed in Mexico for nine months, came home and married not two months later. Twenty years later, and I'm more enamored of him today than I ever was.
A lot has happened in these 20 years of rocky/joyful/insane wedded bliss. An Esabelle, Selena, and Hunter have added laughter and chaos to our domain. We've lived through many woes and disappointments. We've laughed, cried, and held each other tight through our house fire. We have helped our children navigate through their turmoils, and cried in each other's arms through the good and bad. This is marriage, messy yet lovely at the same time. It's work and it's worth it. We celebrated like we've done for the last 15 years. We sent the kids packing, marinated a good steak, popped a cork off a nice bottle of wine, and toasted to the life we've made. Given the chance, I would do it all over again – in a second.