23 Years of Marriage

I've been married for a while now. We just celebrated 23 years. When you're a little girl, you think of all the glory that is being married. There's lots! But nobody tells you about the struggle that is marriage. Yes, I watched Married With Children growing up. But, that wasn't my parent's marriage, so I thought it was just some world edition of marriage. Dustin and I were being married in the temple, so struggle didn't' exist (insert loud, body jolting laugh here)!

Here we are 23 years and 6 kids later with lots of glory and LOTS of struggle. It was hard for me at first. Eye-opening and deflating all at the same time. I loved my husband, I did. We were just so different in our thinking I didn't see how this was going to work out. I called my mom asking for advice -and asking to come home. I would ask her why her marriage was so different than mine. She laughed! Seriously, she laughed at me! She told me about her fights and disagreements with my dad. Things I had never seen. She reminded me that by the time I came along in the family, they had been married 18 years. Then, I had to grow up enough to understand marriage, so add another 5-10 years. My parents had been married for 23-28 years by the time I can actually remember them as a married couple. That's lots of time to learn and figure things out.

That's where Dustin and I are at now! And I will say being married 5 years, or 10 years, even 15 years, is very different than 23 years. I love where we're at! And the exciting thing is I'm guessing it just gets better!!

Happy 23 Years to US!!