Our first year of wedding bliss has been...well just that: Blissful. God has strengthened our relationship and shown us His love over and over this year. We have been incredibly blessed in our marriage. Josh and I have asked each other a few times since we got married if this first year has been as hard as people kept warning us it would be. Quite honestly, it really hasn't. I think that most of that is attributed to the fact that Josh and I were such good friends for 4 years before we got married. There was not a lot of the "getting to know" each other phase, and we also didn't have any of those glass shattering moments when a couple realizes "That person was putting their best foot forward while we were dating and I got dooped into believing they were something much different that what they are". We had a pretty accurate account going into marriage of who the other person really was.
We have had a few "YOU LIKE WHAT?!" moments, like when I found out that Joshua likes Classical music which works out really nicely now that my initial "he can do no wrong" cloud has vanished and I have once again become aware of the fact that he makes noise like every other living creature when he eats. We will be investing in some classical or peaceful instrumental music to play while we eat dinner together now that we are having a little boy and will be eating at the dinner table instead of watching Friends during dinner. (This was the solution we had come up with so I didn't cry every time we sat down to dinner listening to the sound of his saliva swishing around in his mouth. P.S. My husband is not a rude chewer, nor is he an obnoxious one. Just the longer I live with him, the more attuned to all of him I become and that includes the noises he makes while eating.
We have also had a few moments where we have realized that a hobby or a habit, was really an obsession. Like Josh's love for sports, and Star Wars. I still cannot believe how much of a nerd I married, and how well he hid it for so long.
Josh has had a few moments as well, like the discovery that somehow I can still have a full head of hair even though it keeps falling out and is all over the floor, and clogs the drains, and gets woven into his clothes in the laundry. Through his kindness of putting away our laundry he has learned that there are shirts that get hung up, shirts that go with pajamas/lounge clothes that get folded, tank tops that get put into a drawer, tanks that are for sleeping in, dresses get hung up, skirts get rolled up, shorts get folded, jeans get hung up...and so on. Learning to live with someone of the opposite sex is quite different and has been very interesting at times. However, nothing has surprised me more than the discovery I came crashing into last week. Sick boys act a lot different that sick girls.
Now, I would like to think that under different circumstances this would not have been quite as hard of a discovery to live with. When Josh and I took our vows we promised to love each other in sickness and in health. Josh has had a few days where he didn't feel good and I took care of him and loved on him and it was no big deal. But this last week it was a huge deal when Josh got the flu. It was the worst timing ever. Here it is the week between Christmas and New Years, which was already stressful with holiday traveling and chaos, but we were also smack dab in the middle of moving out of our apartment, and I am 7 months pregnant. It's hard enough to be patient and kind when I am hungry or tired these days, let alone exhausted, stressed out, trying to pack, working extra hours to make up for the time I missed last week because I was sick, getting over being sick myself, sleeping on a futon mattress on the floor and having to crawl out of bed to pee 3 times every night while I am as big as a balloon. I had the hardest time packing because there were cabinets I couldn't reach, boxes I couldn't lift and all the bending over and squatting and kneeling to pack was very hard after working all day. Poor Josh couldn't even move out of bed because he was so sick. On top of it all I was extremely worried about my husband who spiked a 103 temperature and was in the bathroom every hour. It did not make for a very stable pregnant woman.
I fought with myself every day because I wanted so badly to stay at home and be by his side to make sure he was not dying and yet I didn't want to come home because I was afraid I would get sick again and that the baby would be in danger if I spiked a fever that high, and I also didn't want to take out any of my emotions out on my husband. It wasn't his fault he was sick, but I struggled so hard to be patient and kind to him during that week. The last 2 days of it were the worst. Josh got really dehydrated to the point his hands were tingling and he was becoming disoriented. We went to Urgent Care and the doctor told Josh that if he could not get some fluids down that we would end up in the E.R. This was a double whammy because Josh's insurance wouldn't kick in until January 1st. (Of course). It was now my job to get him to drink as much water as I could. It was the most awful 24 hours. I jumped between praying that God would heal him and that everything would be ok, to praying that God would give me patience and strength so that I didn't kill him. I could not get him to drink. He was so tired, and felt so sick that he just kept saying "I'm trying", and all I really wanted to say was, "Quit trying and just do it already. You are going to end up in the E.R. DRINK YOUR WATER!!!!"
Alas, he was able to get some fluids down, I did not yell at him and we did not have to go to the E.R. He is doing much better now and I am very, very glad to have my husband back.
