Then

I heard a new song on the radio today.  I skip between the local alternative music station and the country ones - this was on a country station and I thought I recognized the voice.  When I got home I triumphantly found it on iTunes as Brad Paisley's new single "Then."You know, it's interesting to go through challenges with someone, weathering the storms that kick up (and seem to last forever) and then coming out on the other side, banged up and bruised but still standing.  Jason and I have had some rough times as we have dealt with his car accident and all of the other health issues that come from being a quadriplegic.  Some moments during the last 16 years were better than others.  I can think of a year or two that I wouldn't mind just erasing from our memories because they were so challenging.But amid the struggle for survival, we have done it.  And although one person on our little two-person team has often had to take the lead at different times in order to pull us through, we have done it together.  And we are better for it.So, I can't help but think about my life with Jason as I keep hearing the words of the chorus of that song in my head:

Now you're my whole lifeNow you're my whole worldI just can't believe the way I feel about youWe've come so far since that day...And I thought I loved you then.

When you get married you think you are in love - and you are.  But as the twists and turns of life happen and as you travel them together, holding on to one another, fighting the wind and the rain and anything else that gets thrown at you and come out on top....well, that just takes it to a whole new level of love for one another.Now I see him with our little Coleman - another challenge and miracle to work through to receive - and I feel my love gain yet another dimension.

We've come so far since that first day that we met.  I hope that thirty years from now, after we have traveled a lifetime of experiences together that I look back and can say with an even deeper understanding of what love really is - "I just can't believe the way I feel about him...and I thought I loved him then."