looking back

Looking back on our first year of marriage, I have to smile. It has been a fantastic year, but one of so many challenges, Russell and I were really not prepared for.
When were engaged, we looked forward to not having to say good bye every night, getting to snuggle together in bed on winter nights, and all in all, looking forward to starting our lives together. What we didn’t really anticipate was the struggles of having to adjust to living with someone who wasn’t a member of our own family. I recall after just getting back from our honeymoon in Queensland, where we spent our first week as a married couple, we got home, and I cannot even remember what the fight was about, but I grabbed Russell’s keys and walked to his car, a ford wagon. I reversed half way down the driveway, and Russell was coming out telling me not to go, but I wouldn’t listen, so he sat on the bonnet of the car. I thought to myself “if you think that will make me stay, you got another thing coming buddy”. So I quickly accelerated forward, he fell on the windscreen, then I reversed back really fast, and he tumbled off the car. I screeched down the street, while he stuck his fingers up at me, not realising all our new Neighbors were watching the whole ordeal. It is a funny story to look back on. I admit I can be a drama queen. And Yes, I went back apologising for trying to kill him.
Its funny now, but while in the midst of an argument, you can tend to lose all aspects of reason. We had never argued as much in our life as we had in the first 6 months of our marriage. Yes, it was hard, but somehow we pulled through it. There are still hard times, but after surviving the first 6 months of marriage, we have had enough practice at “Conflict Resolution” now, that most arguments are kept to a minimum, and never last very long. Looking back on our first year, I smile, and have fun memories. I hate it when people constantly tell other Christians that the honeymoon doesn’t last. Maybe that’s because they are jealous? I can’t think of a more “down-putting” attitude to pass onto newly married couples in our church. Where’s the encouragement? Hhmm, maybe that’s another topic I will touch on later….But what I’m trying to get across at the moment, is I’m happily married to my man, and have never been so happy! I still wake up and look at him thinking, “I can’t believe we are married!” Look out cloud 10 ‘cos I’m coming your way!