A(lmost) Perfect Ten

On (M)November 21 this year, Andel and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. It’s a strange thing looking back 10 years – it is equally long and short at the same time. In ten years we had gotten married, moved homes twice, bought a house, had three kids – it’s been full. And at the same time, we still feel so new (and not so good) at this marriage thing, like it was just yesterday that we tied the knot.

In early years, we had looked ahead to the 10-year mark as a milestone of great significance, and had dreamed of going to Victoria Falls to celebrate. As it turned out, I had to go to a work conference for three days of this time. But to be fair, that just gave us something to blame it on; I don’t think either of us were ready to leave our three children (or find someone willing and able to stay with them) for 5 days. So, on the day, we took advantage of the childcare already set up for my time at the conference, and shoved ten years’ worth of unredeemed date nights into three hours. It felt like nine. And it was amazing. We had great steak for dinner, did some sunset exercise on the promenade, and got gourmet ice cream that we didn’t have to share with anyone (and all the parents in the house shouted, “yeah!”).

But the real treat came the week after. Thanks to the school calendar that comes out a year in advance, I knew we’d have to find a backup plan, and we so blessed to find a really good special at a place we’d been wanting to visit for forever: Kolkol Mountain Lodge. Even the special was not cheap, so we had to do some saving, and in the end, it was well worth it because, even though we had Bayley there at night, we had an amazing time! For those two days we could have been on another planet; we were totally disconnected from the world and our work, and totally chilled as we hung out – like in our younger days.

It’s not really about the celebration though – and maybe I’ll do another blog about the realities of being married 10 years in this day and age – still, this anniversary was something extra special. Perhaps it’s because I can honestly say that 10 years later, we are living the adventure of a lifetime, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!