My Best Friend

It is hard to believe that 29 years ago, On May 1, 1982........I married my best friend! It really does not feel like it has been that long. We have known each other since we were six years old and starting first grade. Oh, my! That was forty three years ago! Yes, we have literally spent a life time together!

I am not going to sit here and pretend that it has always been easy because, it has not! We have been through so much in our twenty-nine years of marriage. That first year......wow......I did not know if we were going to survive! Then we made a hard decision and moved six hours away from everyone and everything we had ever known! I had our first son in South Carolina and it was just the two of us at that hospital. We had no family there. We moved back when our oldest was a year old.

We went through several years of disappointment as we tried to have a second child and instead faced numerous miscarriages. After six and a half years of trying, we finally had our second son!

We went from joy to fear as we had our third child.....our only girl. She was so sick and we did not know if she would survive! Through this, we became closer instead of allowing it to break us apart!

We have had our ups and downs financially and emotionally, we have gone through the uncertainty of sickness and we have made it through the physical and emotional toll of a horrific car accident.

Through all of these ups and downs, the fear and sorrow, the one thing that has remained constant, is the love and respect we have for each other. Each trial that we have been through has just made us closer.

Even though we have had some really rough days, we have had way more wonderful days. We have brought three beautiful children into this world. We have watched with pride and joy as they have grown into the wonderful adults they have become.

Most of all, we have enjoyed each other. We know each other like we know ourselves. We can laugh at and with each other and we can just look at each other and know what the other one is thinking!

I still get feel a thrill when my phone rings and I know it is him. I love to see him smile and laugh and will do silly things just to get him to do both! I love his hands. I know those hands like I know my own. They are strong hands. They are the hands that dried my tears and tickled me until I laughed so much I could not breathe but most of all they are the hands that have held mine for twenty-nine years.

I don't know what makes a great marriage but, I do know what makes ours work. Respect, Trust, Laughter, Communication and Love......lots and lots of Love!

So......today.....I want to say to my "T".......I love you even more today than I did Twenty-nine years ago! Happy Anniversary! I am looking forward to all the years ahead of us! I Love You!