Happily Ever After

I am convinced that "once upon a time" and "happily ever after" have ruined the notion of true love. As a little girl, I played dress-up and pretended to be a princess who was waiting for her prince charming to come and sweep her off her feet and take her to his castle, where they would live happily ever after. But what does it mean to live "happily ever after"? The fairy tales are a little vague on that. I always pictured it as living a life with no homework, no Saturday chores, and no rules. And boy, was I wrong! I'm married to my prince charming now, but I have to work full-time, make dinner every night, keep the house clean, change the baby, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep, and do a million other things. And you know what? When I go grocery shopping, it isn't in a horse-drawn carriage. It's in a crappy, little car that breaks down every six months. Not very suitable for a princess, if you ask me. In the meantime, my husband has to go to school full-time, do homework for hours every day, send applications to medical schools across the country, help out at our church, and run experiments in his research lab. As you can imagine, that doesn't leave much time for frolicking or helping the woodland creatures.

So what happened? What went wrong? Why didn't I get my "happily ever after"? Here's the secret: I did get my "happily ever after." It just isn't at all what I expected it to be. Life is hard. And marriage is hard. But as long as my husband and I work together and always, always, always put an emphasis on strengthening our relationship, we will always have our "happily ever after." My hope in creating this blog is to help other couples realize their "happily ever after." Whether you are drowning and just trying to keep your head above water or absolutely loving your life and your spouse, I hope this blog will help you find ways to strengthen your marriage and rekindle the love you felt on your wedding day.

Now let me get one thing straight. I do not have a degree in family psychology, and I do not have a best-selling book on family relationships. But I do have a husband, and I know what marriage is like. What it is really like. And I just hope that I can pass on what my husband and I have been able to learn throughout our marriage and let other couples know that it is never too late to live happily ever after. It is never too late to make your own story.