Faithful in the Fray

“How’s married life?”

The amount of times I have been asked this question in the past eight weeks would blow you away. While I genuinely wish I could tell you all about being married, there are some things you share and some things you don’t share.

I figured I would take some time and share some good and some not so good that have happened thus far.

Take for example the first morning in our apartment after the honeymoon. (I have a tendency to over-use toilet paper seeing as how I went for so long without any…) I woke up and went to the bathroom and when I went to flush the toilet, the water overflowed and got everywhere. I semi freaked out as I knew the sight of this disaster was absolutely horrifying and yet the only thing I could do was to gently wake my sweet sleeping husband and tell him the mess that I had made. I explained what happened and after a few failed wire hanger attempts he threw on a hat and ran to the store to buy a plunger. Why we didn’t have one before was the question of the hour. Welcome to reality.

“Jeremy, do you smell something burning?” I asked one night.

“No baby, I think it’s just because we haven’t used the oven a lot, it’ll be okay.”

Only to find out the next afternoon when I had opened the dishwasher I saw what had been burning the night prior. I had carefully placed our plastic measuring cups on the top rack as to not get too hot and melt. Ha. Joke was on me. Somehow the measuring cup fell down and had nestled its way around the heated rim on the bottom of the dishwasher. It melted the cup to the coil and I thought I was going to break the dishwasher if I tried to remove it. So, I waited until Jeremy got home and told him what I had done. He graciously helped me and didn’t break the dishwasher. Win!

For a few weeks I was really sad. There is nothing more wonderful than getting married and having everyone around you for a brief time. But then reality hits. After you leave, everyone leaves and you’re left with a new life. It really took me off guard. I wasn’t used to living on my own, and now I was living with a boy. I wasn’t used to paying bills, and now we had a stack piling up. I wasn’t used to cooking every day, and now I was. I wasn’t used to sharing my time as I had always retreated to my ‘cave’ to rest, and now I was around this other human 24/7. I’m not used to laughing as much as I am, and now I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m not used to having a build in best friend who can never ever ever leave me, and now I’m sad when we spend time apart. It has been a hard and beautiful time figuring out how to adjust.

Every night Jeremy and I sit at the dinner table and pray together. We thank God for who He is, and how He has blessed us. We pray over our families and friends and the places that they are going. We have been able to connect in a deeper and more spiritual way than I ever could’ve imagined. He is constantly fighting for me and encouraging me when I am down. He has gone to the moon and back as I figure out what it means to be a wife. As well as he has been an amazing example of a husband who pursues the Lord for wisdom and guidance.

Is it easy? Absolutely not. I find out how selfish I really am, each and every day. Is it worth it? With every fiber of my being. I wouldn’t trade getting married, so young, to my best friend in the entire world. I wouldn’t trade the adventures we’ve already gone on, and the ones to come. I wouldn’t give any of it up. Things are just beginning.

To end, I thought I would share one of my finest moments thus far as a wife:

I had gotten really sick at work one Friday a few weeks ago, going to the bathroom every 10 minutes it felt like. So, I had asked to go home and rest for the remainder of the day. When I got home Jeremy sat in bed with me for 6 hours and watched Grey’s Anatomy and ate all the snacks in the world. When I finally decided that I should probably go to sleep I got up to go brush my teeth and do my nightly routine. I had just finished washing my face and was going to town brushing when all of a sudden I spat in the sink and looked up. Over our bathroom door was the biggest cockroach in the world. I had immediate flashbacks of my first night in Uganda back in 2012. Our house was infested with cockroaches. We arrived in the dark and as we all turned our headlamps on and saw them my stomach churned. The girls were screaming and refusing to sleep there. One of the girls even said she was going to pitch her tent in the living room just to be safe. Oh, they even ate through our food the first night and I made my team eat the bread to show we were not afraid of the nasty things. (I’m really sorry about that) But anyways, I saw the cockroach and unbeknownst to me, Jeremy already had a piece of toilet paper in his hand to kill it but I screamed. ‘OH MY GOSH JEREMY KILL IT, ITS GOING TO KILL US. I CAN’T BREATHE, I’M GOING TO DIE, *COUGH COUGH* I CAN’T BREATHE’ This went on for a solid five minutes.

Next thing I know, the cockroach is dead, Jeremy is dying of laughter, and every night I still check over the door to make sure another guy isn’t there to haunt me.

How’s married life you ask? It is full of clogged toilets, melted measuring cups, tears, laughter, adjustments, and nasty cockroaches.