an anniversary post of sorts that didn't start out that way

Last night as soon as the children were in bed, I started working on my course website for this semester.  It was a long night and I didn't get to bed until 2 am.  Midway through my fun night with HTML, I checked my email and saw this picture from Neil, who had been working on his laptop in our room and had gone to bed, but not without sending me a cheery little pick-me-up. 

Today while I was driving Abigail to school, I was listening to an interview on NPR with a man who has just started a divorce insurance company.  He quoted several statistics on the likelihood of divorce in first, second, and third marriages, then noted that the average person loses 77% of their net worth in a divorce (which seemed a little high to me, but anyway).

We've had a lot of people close to us go through divorce lately.  I was thinking about this recently, since Neil and I celebrated our eighth anniversary over the holidays.  I wouldn't say that we are always in perfect agreement on everything, nor are either of us perfect people.  But I am grateful for the give-and-take that we have in our marriage; for the ability of one person to give a little extra when the other is in need (like the way Neil let me sleep in this morning and then presented me with freshly-baked coffee cake when I finally stumbled out of bed).  I am grateful for the way that each of us has learned when to step back to allow the other person to learn and grow, and when to push and encourage.  Mostly, I am grateful for something Neil's mission president told him almost a decade ago:  "unity is more important than who is right."  And I am very grateful for my husband, and for his parents, who raised an incredible man. 

When I sat down to blog today, I didn't really mean to write this post (I was actually going to write about the kiddos), but I've just been thinking a lot lately about how grateful I am for my husband and for our relationship, and all that he does to help our family be stronger.  I was trying to think of a good way to sum it all up, and all I can say is that I am so happy every day because he is in my life.