by Amy Ambrosini

Created on: May 09, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

We have been married 13 years. I know, I cringed at first too wondering what bad luck things would hit us this year but four months into it I have to say that if the rest of our lives are like these last four months let lucky number 13 last forever.

I married young before I knew who I was or what I wanted to become and that has at times complicated our marriage yet through it all my husband has watch, coached and supported me. Not always did I want his support and there are times when I absolutely did not want his coaching, advice or opinion. I am probably a typical woman who can be moody and loves to shop. My husband is a typical male even if he doesn't watch sports. He is a fixer and always has a solution and does not want to shop. But that is what makes our relationship work.

I use to think that the differences were something we needed to be working on. I needed to bridge our gaps and fix our differences. I now know that his ability to help me comes from the different way he sees the world. If I bridge the gap between us we will become the same person instead of two people sharing a life together.

I love quiet time in the morning and my husband stays in the room to get ready giving me my 15 minutes to adjust to the day. He writes me a text in the middle of the day expressing his respect for me. He has attended marriage counseling when I thought we needed it, quietly suffering, and he has attended, willingly, church groups on marriage. I am thankful for his honesty in our conversations and in response to my questions. I know that I will never leave a house in an ugly, ill fitting outfit because he is worried about my feelings.

One of my favorite parts is that he cannot honestly take his eyes or hands off me when we are at home. I am not always overly thrilled with his demonstrations of love but if they went away I would miss them and a piece of me would be broken. The greatest thing is that he is teaching our daughter what it looks like to be loved unconditionally. He is showing her how she deserves to be treated and what amazes me the most is that he didn't even have a great role model growing up. He does it because he truly loves me not because it is ingrained in him. How can you be more loved than that?

Yet our marriage is far from a fairly tale. We worked hard through the lean years and developed communication and a joy of each other. There were times when I didn't want to look at him or speak to him and the feeling was mutual. When I watch those fanciful movies of love at first sight or the ooey gooey kind of love movies show I feel sadness that so many of our young people are using that kind of love to gauge their own relationships. What a sad disappointing role model they have.

I say hurry for marriage and I am the most blessed women in America.

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