Date Night and Revelations!

Marriage is such a beautiful gift and too often we are swept up in the daily struggles of life to fully cherish what we have.  I feel so blessed to have a partner in this world who sees me as his equal, supports me in every way he can, worries about me, treasures my insights and ideas, and loves me for who I am.  Not enough people in this world can actually say that statement in truth, and that saddens me.  To be honest, I don’t know where I’d be without my husband. He’s my best friend, my rock, and my life-long love.  My love for him comes only second to my love for God, and to have that sentiment reciprocated is the best feeling in the world.

Unfortunately, this school year has been extremely stressful and a true test to our marriage because of how little time we actually get to spend together.   Since every day has been feeling very repetitive and mundane, I decided that we desperately needed a date night.  Well, tonight was one of the best nights we’ve had in a long time.  For the first time since the school year started, David and I took the night to enjoy each other’s company and have a romantic dinner and movie.  We laughed, stuffed ourselves with fantastic food, kissed, held hands, and fully appreciated our time together.  We even took a drive by our old college, taking in how it has (and hasn’t) changed since we left. 

Just the time spent sitting in the car, blaring the music, and smiling at each other, while I sing terribly off-key and he sings right on pitch, was fabulous.  Yet, we made the night even better by going out to one of our favorite restaurants, seeing a cheesy romantic comedy, and holding hands every chance we got.  I honestly felt like we were just starting to date again, and it was a wonderful sensation! 

After the movie, we decided to drive by our old college.  Wow, is it funny how a few years can change things.  The buildings are the same, and the parking lots have only slightly expanded, but the atmosphere just seems so different now.  When we were there, it was like the entire world was open to us and every possibility lay before us.  Now, I see the fresh faces of eager, young, and energetic college students, and I realize they don’t know just how good they have it. 

I remember being there and struggling to pull myself out of bed some mornings (especially when my CF was acting up).  I would attend about 5 hours maximum of classes and then had the rest of the day free to do homework, sleep, or hang out with friends.  Seriously? What is more perfect than the above description?  I didn’t “pay” rent (although my student loans beg to differ), I had meals made for me, I was surrounded by people my own age who actually cared about me, I developed life-long friendships, and I found the love of my life.  College was such a great time in my life, and I am so grateful to have gone where I did (even if my degree is of no use now). 

After leaving our detour, David made an interesting but quite accurate statement that I hadn’t thought of before.  We had been talking about our college memories, our up-all-hours-of-the-night and desperately-need-coffee days, and about our crazy and random road trips, when he suddenly looked over and said, “It’s funny how fast we became a family.” 

Wow. That line really hit me hard.  I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, but he was exactly right.  I don’t know why I’ve always envisioned a “family” being us and a child, but that’s really not the case.  We’re  a family already.  We look after each other, fulfill each other’s needs and desires, listen to each other, love each other, and treat our dog as if she’s our daughter.  We have an established routine and we struggle if we have to vary from it. We love sitting on the couch and doing nothing. Also, we can go for hours without talking and know just how the other person is feeling.  It’s quite evident that we’ve already started building this beautiful family unit that one day will hopefully include a child or children.  I’m not really sure when it started (was it right after our marriage or was it starting even before that?), but we have certainly evolved, for the better, from our college days.  

Marriage is such a beautiful gift.  Looking back on our journey from where our relationship started to where it is now is breathtaking.  I’m so proud of us, and I’m excited about what our future holds.  I’ll tell you one thing for sure, if date night brings revelations like this all the time, it’s going to have to become a pretty regular thing around this house.