My Greatest Blessing...

Life was pretty simple when I was 17 - I didn't think it was then, but of course now I know otherwise.  I was a senior in high school, getting good grades, enjoying time with my friends, and highly involved at school.  Looking back, I think I was pretty immature back then - perhaps no more than any typical 17 year old, but prone to the normal dramas and overreactions that many teenage girls have.  I had a boyfriend - a really sweet boy that I had dated during the summer, but who lived in another state during the school year.  I had no idea that my life was going to change that year.  In fact, I didn't realize how significant the change would be until years later.  You see, that was the year I met Erik, a very shy sweet kid one grade below me in school. 

I never would have known he existed had fate not put me in speech class with his 2 best friends.  The normal high school matchmaking schemes commenced and I found myself introduced to Erik one day before school.  Now, I'm not going to tell you I was hit with a bolt of lightening or anything - that would  be exaggerating.  But I will say I knew almost instantly that this boy had a special quality about him.  I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but as I got to know him better I figured it out.  Erik was genuine.  There wasn't a conceited bone in his body (a rarity for teenage boys).  He was kind, polite, and had a quiet strength about him.  It certainly didn't hurt that he was cute (in that braces-wearing, late 80's hair kind of way).  But it wasn't his looks that grabbed me - it was his integrity. 

Fast forward a year and I was off to college, while Erik started his senior year in high school.  We had the sweet puppy love thing going and decided to stick it out long distance.  That Christmas brought news of my parent's divorce, and I think I clung to Erik like a lifeline.  I came home that summer and we were stronger than ever.  But the next 5 years proved to be an interesting test of our relationship, as we studied at different colleges.  To this day I marvel that we stuck it out.  We both took turns acting like idiots - trying out new personalities and new directions that is probably very normal for any kid in college.  Erik went a little too far in the delinquent direction, and I went a little too far in the nerdy, anxiety ridden direction, with random bits of wildness thrown in.  Although our relationship strained, we both grew a bit, and I suspect in the end we knew we had a good thing.  I know I never met anyone else like him.  I could never shake this feeling that he was the real deal - just a good person through and through. 

And so 15 years ago this week, we got married.  I'd love to say that's the end of the story, but it was truly only the beginning.  That little gut feeling I had way back as a stupid teenager proved to be the most valuable thing I ever possessed.  All those qualities in Erik that impressed me back then have turned out to the same qualities that make him nothing less than my absolute rock.  Life has thrown us too many curves to count in the last 15 years (cancer, a child with special needs, family strife, just to name a few), but we continue to weather them all with as much grace and dignity as we can.  And the older I get, the more obvious it becomes that I have hit the absolute jackpot when it comes to husbands.  Erik is the same guy he was all those years ago, only better.  He is humble, uninterested in status, full of integrity, trustworthy, kind, sweet, a hell of a father, and always looking to serve his family's needs before he serves his own.  And, yes, he's still quite the looker.  He is simply what many refer to as "good people". 

I don't know what I did to deserve him (and there are days I think I don't), but I am more grateful for him than for anything else in my entire life.  I know 15 years is a drop in the bucket (his parents just celebrated 50 years of marriage), but I suspect he and I are in the thick of it - with school age kids and their struggles (and schedules!), financial stress, and all the other pitfalls of middle age that can derail a marriage.  If it's even possible, I am happier now than I was 15 years ago - just older, grayer, and completely unable to fit into that impossibly small-waisted wedding dress.  Happy Anniversary, Erik.  And here's to many, many more...