Love on the Fourth

The fourth day with no Marc.

Sigh.

It's not just because I miss his help with the kids, and the house, and the garbage, and the errands and dishes.

I miss him.

It makes me realize how thankful I am that, even through our rough times, I truly love him.

I know. You come here to read about life struggles, pursuits of happiness, mishaps and comical moments.

Not a for a romance novel.

I'll spare you the details, but I do love my husband.

On paper, we should never have gotten married—both the oldest, both opinionated and headstrong, both lack confidence in our abilities and we both get our feelings hurt easily.

But, when you really love someone, really, really love someone... you tromp through the tough times, scream at the bad times, and fall apart in between.

Then you add special needs children to the mix and "Voila!" you have complete and utter chaos and a marriage that is doomed for failure.

At least so the statistics say.

Statistics are haunting.

You never want to read a statistic that is predominantly about you and your situation.

Statistics are nice for decisions on where to live, what kind of car to drive, where to go to school.

I don't want a statistic hanging over my head saying that my marriage will never make it.

Honestly, there have been times I thought we would be the statistic.

Honestly, I might even feel like that again in the future.

But, I know, and I believe with all my heart that if I can have the faith and hope to get through the tough roads of Our Life that Heavenly Father will continue to bless us with love for each other.

I know that families can be together forever.

I know that not all marriages work out and there are reasons to be apart, but I, for my own reasons and needs am so thankful that we have put so much work into this marriage.

It's not perfect, but I love him!

He loves me.

We make it work.

But here are a few tips to keep things strong:
Have a weekly date night.
Have things in common you like to do, even if it is just shopping together or walking together.
Have your own individual hobbies and likes and make sure to make and take time to do them.
Talk to each other about your love for your hobbies and likes and get excited with each other about them.
Respect each other (find out how each defines respect or feels respected and make sure to do that)
Stay faithful.
Don't wander (either with your eyes or your heart).
Plan with each other.
Don't let your kids take place of your marriage (make those work together... a healthy marriage can help your kids).
Have faith in each other and in God.
Help each other.
Serve each other.
Serve others.
Laugh together about yourselves, your marriage, your life, your choices.
Laugh together about other people, others marriages and other's choices (It funny, just accept it.)

And that's just my little bit of unsolicited advice for today.

All because I miss my husband.

Romantic isn't it?

Maybe.

But, my UP for today isn't that I love my husband... I mean that is an UP, but not exactly a surprise...

So my UP is that I survived church successfully with the kids on my own!

Hallelujah!

I was even debating up until 30 minutes before we needed to leave whether I wanted to even go to church or not.

It would have been so much easier not to go.

But I went.

I went for routine.

I went for continuity.

I went to be uplifted.

And I was.

Especially during the last hour when we were able to kick off our Youth Missionary Month. It is just a mock missionary experience for the youth. They receive mock mission calls and everything. It's such a great experience for the youth ages 12-18.

For Brother's mock mission this month he was called to Helsinki, Finland! He was so excited!!

Another big UP was being able to sit and watch half of a movie with all three kids tonight before bed. Ya, I know, half a movie! Pretty epic, right?!

Day 60 of 365 Days of UP