SuzyQSparkle: My First Sixth Anniversary

Saturday, February 02, 2008

My First Sixth Anniversary

Today is my first sixth anniversary. I’ve been married twice before; once for five and a half years and the second time for three and a half years. If you’re wondering, yes, Thomas was a little concerned about the year and a half mark! ;)

They say “the third times’ a charm” and for me it definitely was!

There was a time when being married and divorced made me feel bad and like something of a failure. I remember “not wanting to be a statistic” but then realizing that whether I was married or divorced, I was still a part of a statistic, it just depended on which side of the fence you were looking at. Now, I think back on my first two marriages and I appreciate what I learned from them. I also know that Tom and my marriage wouldn’t be as good as it is if not for all my growth and learning from the first two.

I have dated four men in my life. I’ve married three of them. This is not what I feel to have been a healthy dating life. But now, finally, I seem to have “lucked out” in that I have a husband who treats me like a Queen. We get along very well, in good times and bad. We support each other when we are stressed out and also when we’re happy. Certainly we have issues, but I’ve come to realize that every healthy relationship has times that are rough… these help us to become a stronger couple and to understand things better – ourselves and each other.

Wow! I’ve gotten quite philosophical. I just wanted to let you know it is my anniversary and that it is special (though unusual) at six years. The only way to understand why it’s a milestone is to know a bit about my past. Now you do.

Something else about Tom and my marriage… we didn’t make a big deal about it. Actually, we eloped, just before sunrise, outdoors in the Sonoran Desert. After we eloped, Thomas went to breakfast with his Dad, and I went to my first day “on stage” at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. That night, I slept in a RV Trailer in the desert (behind the Renaissance Festival) with my brother, and Thomas slept at home, alone. Talk about red-neck! :P Life just “went on”.

Even though I had weddings for my first two marriages, I never had professional photographer at any of them. I did dig up a few pictures of Tom and I during the first Spring of our marriage, I thought you might enjoy seeing them: