Six years…and counting!

Six years ago yesterday, I woke up really early having gone to bed at 3.00am that morning (I’d been at the dressmaker’s waiting to pick up my wedding dress! Please don’t ask!). I was excited. It was my wedding day; a day I’d dreamed about for so long!

After attending, organising and being a bridesmaid at several other weddings, I was finally going to be the one who wore the wedding dress and walked down the aisle holding on to my father’s arm. It was me people were going to be looking at and whispering “what a beautiful/ugly bride she makes, what a lovely/hideous dress!” Hopefully in my case it would be the former!

The weather was beautiful, quite unlike the rainy episodes we’ve had this August. We were determined we would be on time, none of that ‘it’s traditional for the bride to be fashionably late’ malarkey. As a matter of fact, we got there so early, we had to drive around to pass the time while waiting for the minister to arrive.

The ceremony which took place at a church was very personal and there was lots of dancing and singing, then we had loads of photographs taken with friends and family.

We danced into the reception, ‘digging it in style’ to the live band singing and playing, flanked on both sides of the aisle by cheering friends and family. For our first dance, we had a trio of songs .

There was a lot of food and drink and once we’d gotten past the formalities of eating, speeches and cake-cutting, it was time for everyone to hit the dance floor. And our DJ certainly didn’t disappoint. We danced, shuffled and spun as the sounds of Old Skool music rent the air.

We had such a fun time that someone remarked to my Dad at the end of the evening, “the only problem is the party ended too soon!” ;o)

This all took place six years ago. In the intervening years, we have grown together melding our separate personalities to create a oneness whilst still maintaining our individuality. We have learnt (and are still in the process of learning) the fine art of compromise in marriage, how to disagree on an issue without attacking or demeaning one another. We’ve come to understand that different isn’t necessarily wrong, just different. We’ve become less selfish as we’ve tried to be considerate of each other in our everyday lives.

We’ve learnt that a good marriage doesn’t just happen; it takes effort on both our parts. We’ve come to appreciate our SWOTs  (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) as we work towards the common objective of “leaving father and mother and cleaving’ to each other.”

We’ve learnt that “a word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” Prov. 25:11. We’ve learnt that ‘there is a time for everything under the sun” including “a time to speak and a time to keep silent” Ecc. 3:1,7.

We’ve had two energetic, smart and handsome boys. We’re surrounded by a host of special people in the form of friends and family.We’ve been truly blessed.

Six years ago, as I walked down the aisle, just minutes away from formalising a lifetime union with Mo Cushla, I had no idea how the following years would play out. I couldn’t have asked for better. I am honoured and privileged to have an extraordinarily special man for a husband. A man who celebrates me, encourages me, hears me out, indulges me, provides for and protects me, laughs and cries with me, challenges and inspires me, makes me laugh and exasperates me. He’s become my best friend and soul mate, my health and fitness partner, my sounding board and my fellow brainstormer.

If I have painted a picture of the perfect marriage, I apologise as ours is by no means so. We just recognise that we are fallible beings totally incapable of doing it on our own so we’ve invited the One whose idea marriage was in the first place to help us along the way. We’re on this exciting journey together, we have no clue what lies ahead but we are confident that by God’s grace, we will continue to experience heaven on earth.

Some dear friends were thoughtful enough to wish us well on Facebook with the following songs.

Enjoy and tara for now.