It's late Saturday night.
The kitchen is picked up, the dishwasher is running, and the lights are out.
(Full disclosure: I had nothing to do with any of the above.)
I just went to fill up my water bottle.
As I walked out I noticed an old Macy's gift card laying on the counter.
"Happily Ever After" it claims.
I just looked at it and laughed to myself.
What a lie.
I love my husband.
I like my husband.
I enjoy being with my husband.
I laugh with him like I do with no one else.
But what a lie.
Saying "I do" or "I will" or whatever trendy vow phrase of the moment will never send you straight into "Happily Ever After."
Life is hard.
It was hard a few months into marriage when I thought my position at work was going to be eliminated.
It was hard a year later when we found out we were walking through infertility.
It was hard when we found out our son had a congenital birth defect.
It was hard when we lost our daughter.
There is nothing happy about what we are walking through.
It is the absolute worst pain we have ever felt.
Just when you think it's starting to ease up a bit it's time to breakdown the pack-n-play or pull the gel off the plaster hand and footprints that the nursing staff made for you.
In the midst of this hell the place I feel the very safest is in my husbands arms.
When the hurt is more than I can handle, when the tears come and don't seem like they will ever end, I want to be with him.
We are in this together.
I am so thankful that I didn't believe the lie.
If you really think marriage is supposed to be "Happily Ever After" then what happens when life falls apart?
