Twelve years ago on Veterans Day, we became husband and wife. When I think about that anniversary, I also think about where she found me: divorced, living in a motel, and with next to nothing.
She fell in love with me there. I didn’t have a house to show her or much evidence that life was going particularly well. That was my situation, and she wanted to be with me anyway. Twelve years later, that still means a lot to me.
Now we own our home. Even writing that feels good. I can put those two facts beside each other—living in a motel then, owning a home now—and see how much has changed. Getting from one to the other took years of work and patience, with both of us involved.
We also have two awesome boys, both on the autism spectrum. They’re a huge part of the life we’ve built together. When I say I’m proud of our family, I mean my wife and our sons, and the fact that this is the life we get to share.
There’s another anniversary right behind our wedding anniversary: tomorrow marks one year at my millwright job. Before that, I spent sixteen years doing foundry work. After that long in one kind of work, having a full year in a new job feels worth celebrating too.
Our marriage has had big fights. I don’t want to leave those out just because it’s our anniversary. We’ve needed patience and understanding, especially when either one was hard to come by. We stayed and kept working on things, and I believe that effort has made our bond stronger than steel.
So this Veterans Day, I’m looking at twelve years as her husband, a home we own, and two boys I love. Tomorrow, I’ll have a year at the millwright job, too. We’ve got quite a bit to celebrate.
