10

This Thursday marks ten years since the boy from Chemistry class married me and changed my name. Ten years ago, I was an idealistic little twenty year old that thought that marriage would be easy, my happily ever after. The boy and I quickly learned that marriage would be one of the hardest journeys ever.

Ben is quiet, and gentle, and to be honest, I've only heard him yell maybe three times in the thirteen years we've been a couple. I grew up in a tumultuous, angry household, and I think maybe my spirit knew I should pick a man that was different. Peaceful. Safe.

He loves me fiercely. He protects and provides and he's a great daddy to our two boys.We are so different, opposites in many ways, but the one thing we agree on more than anything is protecting our family from the forces that would love to tear it apart.

This year has been the most challenging for the two of us. We're really open about that, not because we're proud of it but because we believe that honesty and openness can heal a lot. We've been through hell and dare I say we've come out of it better.

I love this man I grew up with. I had no idea, when I went on a group date with him on that cold January night thirteen years ago, that he would end up as my husband. Usually you don't end up with the person you start dating at seventeen.

I know this post isn't mushy, there aren't a lot of frills, but this is our story. Through many struggles, through five miscarriages and years of infertility and doctors and family heartache and the loss of my dad and six tattoos, through financial uncertainty and broken hearts and severed ties, through thirteen Christmases and ten years of filing our taxes together, through five moves and one mortgage, we've made it through. I love this man fiercely. I'm not sure of a whole lot, but I am really, really sure of us.