Now that I live the life of a leisurely stay-at-home mom/trophy wife (ha!), my husband and I joke all the time that I married him for his money. But if you know us at all, you know this is far from true. The man I married was actually unemployed. In fact, he quit his job working at a horse stable just so we could go on our honeymoon. But we didn’t fear for our future, we were young, blinded by hope, and living on love.
And it’s a good thing that’s how it all began, because here we are … with our one income family surviving a union refinery strike … we are back to living, and surviving, on that love.
This strike has reminded me what’s really important in life. Money (while I’m not saying it’s not nice) is just that … something material. We still have what’s most important; we have each other and we have our family. A family that would never let us go without. We couldn’t really be more blessed.
I’m just so thankful at this time we are all in good health and we have a support system to see us through the hard times, so we can even more appreciate the good times.
I still remember my dad asking me before I married my husband, “Are you sure? Are you sure he’s the one?” I think he wasn’t totally convinced the man without any foreseen career aspirations was fully equipped to take care of his little girl. But he couldn’t see what I could see. I saw a man who loved me and would move heaven and earth, and do anything he could to be with me. A man who would lie in the mud to change my horse trailer tires, make me cards, learn to dance, stand by me for better or worse, tell me I am the most beautiful woman in the world … and make me feel that to him, I really am.
I’ve realized what you want, and what you need in life, are definitely two different things. While I want a lot of things, I need my husband, our kids and our family. I need to make our love last forever, because without it, nothing else seems important.
These are the hard times that bring us together, the moments that define our future. No matter what it holds, we stand together, just simply living on love.
