I posted this picture on Facebook this morning after his visit, also changing my profile picture to a picture of just the flowers. 87 likes and 15 comments later I started thinking about what 11 years, 11 months and 11 days actually looks like.
It's so much more than the flowers I posted online. It's dating. It's falling in love. It's buying houses. It's having kids. But it's also fighting, it's not liking the person for that moment, it's losing houses and it's suffering just as much (or even more) when your kids are sick. It's looking your spouse in the eye and accepting them for ALL that they are. All the wonderful 'dropping flowers off to work' moments but all the faults and demons as well. Looking them in the eye and saying, "You aren't perfect. But you're perfect for me" and having them say that SAME back to you.
I didn't want to trivialize 11 years, 11 months and 11 days into a picture of flowers on Facebook. We've been through the rough times. The really hard times. The amazing times. The absolute giddy times. What truly makes 11 years, 11 months and 11 days so amazing is that here we are - giving and accepting flowers all happy and giddy like we were when we were first dating. Our hard times haven't tainted us. They haven't broken us. They have only made us stronger.
In a new era of "if it's broke - just replace it" I pride my husband and I for sticking it out. For always having each others backs. For trusting each other completely - even if on the inside we weren't so sure.
11 years, 11 months and 11 days is so so much more than a vase full of flowers. It's losing people you love. Attending funerals together and wiping the tears away. It's sitting in the waiting room of Sick Kids in silence holding hands both too afraid to talk. It's laying WIDE awake in your new bed in your new house too excited to sleep. It's saying, "it's a boy!" one more time as you birth your next child. It's late nights and dirty diapers. It's mowing the lawn and stepping in dog shit. It's walking in the house and stepping in dog shit. Let's face it. It's a lot of shit. It's listening to first words, watch first steps, and holding the tears back as the school bus pulls away for the first time with them on it.
It's date nights. It's finding yet ANOTHER babysitter so you don't have to give up those precious date nights. It's spending date night at Walmart buying diapers and having dinner at Wendy's because that's all you have money left over for. It's putting the kids to bed and drinking entirely too much together trying to recapture those carefree days. It's waking up early the next morning and doing rock paper scissors over who gets up to deal with the kids.
11 years, 11 months and 11 days is history. It's a whole history with the person you fell in love with. The person who knows all your weaknesses and strengths. A person who you just couldn't live without.
11 years, 11 months and 11 days is so much more than a vase full of flowers. But flowers after 11 years, 11 months and 11 days says so much too.
I love you....MORE.
xoxoxoxo
