We Made It!

Today I am married exactly 8 years. This is remarkable, for many many reasons.
One, my family (sorry Beth) is f'ing crazy. CRAZY. They gave me these... demands... restrictions.. before I got married. This really frustrated me, because they did not know Jacob, and I'll give them that. But I knew him. I knew he was going to be a wonderful husband and one day, Father. There is no way you can tell your family the things that you have learned. They will not listen. All they are interested in is how far they have come in life, and how you are just 22 and will most certainly make those same mistakes as them. Either "I didn't find myself until I was thirty, and neither will you" or "you can't get married until you do ______ and _______ and ________" or my personal favorite stab in the back... "You don't think you are going to get divorced too?" From the lady that divorced one alcoholic and quickly married another alcoholic.

This is the one day of the year that I revisit those words, those looks, and I can feel so much accomplishment and pride and happiness that I have this wonderful family here in my arms. Loving and together.. Happy and sane... )most of the time) we have a roof over our heads, we feed our children healthy meals, they have clothes and go on vacations and we are responsible happy people. I really wasn't expected to be like this 8 years ago. My family saw me as poor, sad Laura. They thought my church was a cult that we gave all our money to, they thought Jacob was dumb (laughable , at best, because he is the smartest man I know.)
I feel like I have accomplished so much to them, and I feel like their eyes have been opened to Jacob and what a wonderful human being he is. Often, I have thought about what it might be like if he ever died suddenly of a heart attack, or was killed in a car crash. I imagined what loneliness to that degree must feel like. If (God forbid) anything ever happened to either of us, I don't think we would be able to cope. My life would be crushed. Jacob once told me that even though people don't really ever speak about it, he loved me more than he loved our children. I can't imagine choosing him or the children, but I do understand what he meant. I would never want to marry anyone else. He is the perfect person for me, despite our differences, and I would always be comparing another person to Jacob.
We love each other more than I can express in a blog, and I am very thankful for the years we have had together and the exciting years to come.
Happy Anniversary, Honey!
We made it!