Look what we’ve made, you and I.

We’ve made a 35-year marriage together. Somehow, decades and fives always sound auspicious, and I’ve been thinking about this one for a few weeks. All the amazing things we’ve made together.

We’ve made memories and stories. We’ve made silly memories that we still retell and laugh about. Mishaps almost always make the best stories, and we’ve had our share of those. We’ve made special memories that we hold deep in our hearts. And we’ve made the signpost memories as well, the ones where there is a before it happened and an after it happened, and they are worlds removed from each other. Some of those memories we made on purpose, and some of them we had no choice but to hold hands and leap together into that world after.

We’ve made a home. It was small and quiet to begin with, my parents’ card table serving as our first dining place. It was chaotic and overrun for what seemed like forever, with babies and toddlers and little kids and big kids and wave after wave of clothes and shoes and stuff and stuff and stuff. And then suddenly, unbelievably, it was quiet again, the whirlwind past, leaving broken down couches and a refrigerator full of pictures. Our children accuse us of getting the dog just to replace some of the chaos.

We’ve made mistakes. Naively falling in love with an overgrown, reactive dog is only one among many. By the grace of God, none of the mistakes have been too big or too unrecoverable or too far from the reach of his mercy.

We’ve made friends and a community. Amazing, wonderful, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life friends. I can’t imagine being on this journey without those that surround us, walk beside us, hold us up.

We’ve made a family.  Simply absurd that you can start with tiny, fragile, heart-wrenchingly precious, little babies, and that they can then grow up to be real adults that take your breath away with their kindness and strength and bravery. And then those adults can go out into the world and find other kind, strong, brave adults and bring them home to join your family. What a wonderful thing.

We’ve made us, something entirely separate from the two young people that decided to start this journey together. Something stronger and greater than the sum of its parts.

Thank you, God, for us. Thank you, sugar, for the years together. Happy anniversary.