Two

Over the weekend, we celebrated two years as a family of three.  Two years.  It sounds super cliche, but it feels like both a lifetime and five minutes, simultaneously.

Steve and I had secret phone conferences and made lists and ran rest time errands and it was totally worth it.  We started the day with balloons and chocolate chip pancakes, ended with sushi and frozen yogurt and had new Matchbox car tracks, bike/scooter riding and feeding horses sandwiched in the middle.  The whole day was full of celebration.

It's the hardest won victories we celebrate the biggest.

You might think that time would fade the magic and awe that we feel surrounding Arthur's adoption.  It could become so much a part of our story that it seems like just another thing we did as part of our grand life adventure together.  

That's not the case though, at least not yet.  The past year has left me feeling even more amazed that Arthur is a part of our family.  Adding one to our numbers still seems akin to climbing Mount Everest or swimming the English Channel- such a big feat that I can hardly believe we pulled it off.  

But we did, and he's here, and I still feel so lucky.  And I'd like to go on the record and say that today (Arthur's actual family day) has been a bit challenging.  Steve is sick, Arthur threw a fit during dinner, and I got off the phone with poison control less than an hour ago after discovering that he had snacked on about half a tube of toothpaste during rest time.  There are Lego's all over the floor and I still need to finish the dishes from dinner and find something for show and tell that begins with "X" (really preschool?!?).  

And I though to myself a minute ago, "I'll take it."  Two years ago we picked up a little boy and signed on for all the toothpaste eating and stepping on Lego's and weird school projects and I'll take it all for the chance to be a part of this exact family.  Here's to another year of us.  

(But also here's hoping tomorrow is a little easier.) 

for better or worse

We got to celebrate with one of our old friends as he got married last week.

Confession: I always cry at weddings.  To be accurate, I always cry at weddings since I've been married.  It's the vows, man.  They do me in every time.

This time around, I got to thinking that half of the standard wedding vows are a bit unnecessary.  I mean, it's not difficult to stick with someone in wealth and good times.  Don't you feel like you could do almost anything if you were constantly healthy and rich?

But on the flip side, it's much harder to think of someone you want to be with when things are going downhill.  It seems like, before you get married, you should think about things like- 

Who do you want by your side when you receive bad news?

Who do you want to hold hands with in bed when you're both nervous and jittery and can't sleep?

Who do you want to sit next to on an international flight as you head to pick up a child? (this one might not apply to everyone...)

Who do you want to bring you soup and magazines when you're sick?  More importantly, who do you want to wait on while they're sick?

Who could you imagine having fun with, even if you don't have any money? 

I don't know that I consciously thought about any of these scenarios pre-marriage.  I certainly had an idea that hardships with Steve would be better than hardships alone, but it is only now, looking back, that I start to realize how lucky I am.  

The other fantastic thing about the wedding was that one of my college roommates came to stay with us for the week leading up to it.  Shana is pretty much the definition of fun and it was a happy accident that she was here during Arthur's spring break- instant party!  We took walks, ran errands, played trash truck, and ate lots of snacks.  All these pictures were taken with her camera, however I'm not exactly sure who was doing the snapping on some of them.  But, you know- photo credit = not me.  

We've had house guests for most of the month of April so far, but it's back to just three of us now.  We're getting the house back in order and plotting and planning for summer, which is so close I can hardly believe it.  Hope things are sunny where you are!