Nine.

We are nine years old today!

Here’s our birth day photo…

It’s been a wild ride so far.

I knew going into it that marriage would be hard. You can’t get married at 31 and not have a little bit of mess that you bring with you. But I think I may have underestimated it.

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Marriage for us has been a nine-year-long roller-coaster ride. There is the slow, tension-building ascent, a momentary pause at the top, then a fearsome stomach-dropping plummet followed by an unending series of wild turns and loops.

All we can do is strap in and hold on for dear life.

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It’s not like life has handed us lemons, but we’ve certainly had our share of stress.

Actually, if you count them up, we’ve had a life-altering event almost every year we’ve been together. 

No wonder it’s been a bit of a rough go.

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I thought nine years in we’d at least be off the dang roller coaster. 

Nope. We’re still strapped in and hanging on while we fly at 100 mph.

Sometime I envy those for whom marriage seems to come easily. For us, not one single year has come easy. We have had to fight hard for nine years.

But that’s what makes every anniversary sweeter than the last.

And though we’ve certainly wanted to, we’re not about to let this thing go. We’re here for the long haul.

So here’s to nine.

Here’s to us.