Celebrating our second year of marriage was quite different than celebrating our first year. This year, there was no beautiful hotel, no endless glasses of wine, & no exploring new cities together. This year, we are going on 18 weeks of quarantine* because of a world pandemic, settling into a new apartment, & 37 weeks pregnant… so, just a little bit different.
*You think you know someone until you’re both working from home on one table surface in a 500 sq ft studio apartment, taking calls from the bathroom. FUN TIMES.
As surreal as the circumstances surrounding this day are, it doesn’t change the fact that this past year was another year of growth for us, both individually and as one unit. God has continually challenged us to reflect on what it means to be husband & wife in the larger puzzle of “this world” vs. just “our world.”
We may be celebrating 2 years of marriage, and almost 10 years of being together, but the reality is that there was a time when we didn’t know each other. During that time, our families, specifically our parents, were the ones who shaped and molded us to be who we were when we first met. While we were dating, we were both people who put our families first above each other - parents, siblings, cousins. After getting married, our families just became one big, loving, amalgamation.
This year more than ever, we’ve had to rely on our families for their support and wisdom as we entered this next chapter of our lives. It has been an amazing blessing to have most of our family within a 20 min~1.5 hour radius from us. We’ve been able to celebrate moments big & small, discuss current events in our city and country, run simple errands for each other (with masks on), and look back on childhood memories, dreaming of the day we can pass those experiences onto the next generation!
Whatever husband checklist I had at age 16 went out the window when I met Jon. After all the time we’ve been together, I can say that no personality test or horoscope, could’ve predicted the trajectory of our relationship: the experiences of dating through college, our first jobs, long distance, new jobs, frustrations of living without an electric drill... etc. Over time, my curiosity, the limits of my patience, my sense of joy & gratitude, my stubbornness (to name a few) have all evolved for the better.
Looking back on our wedding day, marriage was not a means to an end, not what “naturally” happened because we were dating for 8 years or something that we felt societally pressured to do. Marriage for us was one thoughtful step in a long term commitment to each other and our families.
We choose daily to love each other, to communicate honestly, to be transparent with our feelings, to make compromises, to respect each other’s ambitions & occasional laziness, to celebrate life. No matter the circumstances, we consciously work together toward living as disciples of God, as children to our parents, and as husband & wife.
This past year: Jon started a new job, we attended weddings and funerals, we hosted dinners and wine nights, we traveled to Portugal, London, Boston & AZ, we found out we were pregnant(!), celebrated our friends’ kids, quarantined without killing each other, moved to an apartment with laundry in-unit, realized how ill-equipped we are to be parents but know that it will happen anyways.
We may not be poppin’ bottles in Napa like we were last year but I’m just as happy with my sparkling cider and chocolate chip banana bread on our comfy couch. Happy 2 year anniversary to my best friend!
Love, MH