Jami and the Husband Celebrate a Dozen Good Ones

It's our twelve-year anniversary! Happy Anniversary, the Husband! Whew, 12 years. I can't even begin to list all that we've been through. Marriage is great, and hard. It's fun and easy and ridiculously challenging. Instead of a post about marriage, or how great the Husband is (which is "very") let me just tell you about the beginning of our wedding ceremony, 11am, 12 years ago . . . In my giant princess dress, with my hair and make-up done, I waited at the bottom of the stairs to THE AISLE with my daddy and M. The bridesmaids were starting up the stairs, the mothers and grandmothers had been seated. Music trickled down the stairs and I fought the bizarre feeling that I was in some sort of musical. We had costumes, music, lines, blocking - it's a play . . .right? Not the most important day of my life to that point. As usual, when I'm just past nervous, I had my normal thought "I'm going to pass out. No, puke. No, puke and then pass out." I thought of all the people who'd be staring at me (yes, I like to be the center of attention, but I'd never done this before), of all the things that could go wrong in the service or the reception. I thought of what "until death do us part" means when you're 22 years old. And I followed M up the stairs. I held onto my daddy, who managed to keep it together way better than I will at my kid's wedding. At the top of the stairs, my friend Evvie saw me and waved. I smiled back, wondering if I looked like someone about to faint. M started down the aisle. The music changed, the congregation stood, and we walked up the last step and around the corner . . . And I saw the Husband. And I swear to you, everything I'd been thinking feel away. No fears, no worries, no fainting. I forgot about the reception. I can't even tell you what anything at the front of the church looked like because all I saw was him, and that's all I needed. I can still summon that feeling when I close my eyes and see that moment in my head. Imagine 10 radios in your head, yammering on about fears and concerns and just noise and then, they all go off at once. That's what it was - absolute clarity. Absolute right. Followed by 12 years of proof of that. And more to come.