Let me not to the marriage of true minds....

.....Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
-- William Shakespeare

With these moving words, even prettier music, all our friends and family in the most beautiful of settings my love and I were married this day nine years ago! In that time- time's fool has wrought some definite changes and yet, my love is not shaken. I suppose having been through as much as we have together and separately - we will not be shaken nor removed nor bent! I may not say it enough - though I think it constantly - my life would not be what it is without my partner, my friend and the love of my life. It is easy to love - but hard to be married, harder still when there are children, jobs, families all wanting time and attention. It can be hard to remember all the little things - like I still smile broadly when my LH (Loving Husband) sends flowers to my office!! (I think HE knows this cuz look what he sent today!!) or remembers some silly thing and makes sure it happens.

We may be parents - and tired alot of the time, but we are still best of friends and there is no one else I could imagine having shared this much of my life with so happily. In marrying my LH I got the best of the bargain for sure - for I married into a family of amazing people who I love and who love us back! I married someone who will always make sure my coffee is waiting and my lunch made.. even if the only thing in the house is a chicken wing - I will have a sandwich!

I married someone who when I said I needed to be a mother and I thought our child was in China - said "How soon do we travel" in spite of what it cost us and all the uncertainty. This is also the person who, not so long ago, responded to my teary-eyed observation that the new rules would mean no going back to China for another amazing child - with "We better get the paperwork in before that happens then!" Can you understand why I love my big clumsy guy?

This guy puts his family first before anything or anyone and that is why nine years ago - the day I said "I DO!" I meant it and I have not regretted it for a second anytime since.

Happy 9th Anniversary Me Honey!