Thursday 8 May 2008

20 years of marriage!


Yesterday DH and I celebrated our China Wedding Anniversary. Twenty years of marriage six kids of eight pregnancies and a lifetime of memories and things to laugh about.

At work one of his colleagues said, "Twenty years! Gosh! That's quite an achievement!"
It's been hard work at times...for both of us LOL! But I think despite some difficulties and sometimes because of them, we have had a great twenty years and hopefully will have another great twenty years.
Our marriage has been very much a 'public' affair. I am not sure how else to word it. DH says we have been given the charism of hospitality, and I guess by the number of people I seem to feed every week he might have a point.
We had a weeks honeymoon in Applecross at the north west end of Scotland. We had applied for two weeks but the hospital wouldn't give me two weeks leave. Shame eh? Anyway as it turned out it was a good job because as soon as we got back my friend called. She was in dire straights and moved in with us that week. She was going to stay a couple of weeks, but stayed a couple of years. We had fun!
Over the years there has been a lot of extras around the dinner table needing hot food and TLC.
Sometimes I just didn't want to do it, but dh was always supportive and helped me remain 'Christian' when I really wanted to be Me oriented.
We worked together for some time at a CAMHS clinic. At the beginning there were some concerns and doubts about a married couple working together on the unit, especially as he was to be my boss. But it worked very well. Hardly any of the children admitted to the unit had anything like a good stable family life and they were often openly fascinated in seeing a couple who could be together all day without screaming and shouting at each other or being violent with each other. One child begged us to adopt him. I went home that night and cried.
We've struggled together through some pretty difficult pregnancies and then me becoming disabled. We've had some pretty scary money problems sometimes-especially when I had to give up work. But we've seen it through for richer for poorer, sickness and health and with God's grace ('cuz that's what makes a marriage work) we'll keep on.

13 comments:

LizzieD said...

Wonderful, I LOVE to hear about Wedding Anniversaries, and good people showing how the Sacrament works! Congratulations, and God Bless you both.

EC Gefroh said...

Well Happy Anniversary WS!!
God bless you both.

Cathy said...

Hooray!

Many, many more years to you!

:)

Marie said...

CONGRATS to you WhiteStoneNameSeeker:) and wishing you a Happy Mothers day.

Peace & JOY to you ALL:)

Marie xooxox

Adrienne said...

Congratulations and Happy Mother's Day, too.................

Joe said...

Congratulations on your anniversary, and thank you for sharing a very beautiful testimony. I found the account of your "charism of hospitality" particularly interesting.

Kit said...

Oh, how wonderful! What a lovely "review" of your 20 years, too. :)

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary to you both.

((Hugs)),
Kit

gemoftheocean said...

Congrats to you both

Autumn said...

Congratulations to you both! :) xx

I read your comment on Rita's blog about finding it difficult to find a place to fit. I hope you will always find a warm welcome at my blog. I remain non-controversial as I wish to create a warm and loving place where everyone, Catholic and non-Catholic, can feel "at home". This is why i don't get into the liberal/trad arguments. Life is too short. I want my blog to be a channel of God's peace, and you are always welcome there!

Love & prayers, AR xx

WhiteStoneNameSeeker said...

Wow, thanks everyone!
AR-I love your blog for those very reasons.

Phil said...

In the words of Saint Cliff Richard: CONGRATULATIONS... and JUBILATIONS...

Ebeth said...

I just now caught up with you and missed your anniversary!!

Blessings and good cheer on such a wonderful union and...you better change your "about me"!

Hugs!
Ebeth

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

Many congratulations...please update my blog link as I've started a new one..info on the old!