Happy Anniversary!

As we celebrated our 7th anniversary I got to thinking about how lucky I am to have married Matt.  I married a man who loves Jesus, loves me, and loves our life.  I just don't know how it gets any better!  I can't imagine life without Matt, he's truly my partner and my soul mate.

We've had an interesting 7 years of marriage.  The first year was in fact the hardest.  We were married May 19, 2006.  We didn't get to take a honeymoon because Matt's company wanted him to go to driver training and that was the only week that he could do it.  So we went to our townhouse for a couple days after we were married and then headed up to Minneapolis where I got to hang out in a hotel room, by myself all day long.  I watched TV and ordered a pizza and then since we had to be out of the room by 3pm I hung out, with all our stuff, in the hotel lobby until Matt was done.  Matt made it up to me by taking me to the Mall of America for shopping though!

Shortly after we were married I started having joint pain (it actually started in November of 2005, but it went away).  Every morning when I would wake up I would be so swollen that I couldn't close my hands.  My wrists were beginning to swell to the point where I couldn't bend them without an intense amount of pain.  My new husband looked at me and did what he does best...he took care of me.  Matt would help me shower, he would wash my hair for me, dry me off, help me comb my hair and get dressed.  Matt would often carry me down the stairs to the living room before he would go to work.  We both thought it was weird that later in the day everything would get better and if I laid down for a nap or to watch a tv show the swelling would start up again.

The diagnosis process was awful, I will go into details in a different post because it's long and involves Matt actually yelling at a doctor.  Those of you who know my husband IRL know that he's a fairly soft spoken man.

After my diagnosis I started to find relief slowly.  My doctor believed me and gave me medicine to help with the pain...but the treatment process is long and doesn't always go as planned.  In the middle of this we found that Matt needed surgery.  A friend of my mom's growing up is a well respected surgeon in Sioux Falls so we requested that he do Matt's surgery in October of 2006.  The surgery went great, I took Matt home and he recovered well. 

During the whole diagnosis process with my RA we learned that I had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome bilaterally.  My right arm was going numb within a matter of seconds continuously no matter what position I had it in.  We scheduled surgery with a well respected thoracic surgeon for December 12, 2006.  During this time the company Matt worked for was going through a re-alignment.  While I was on the operating room table Matt received the call that he had lost his job.  We were given 10 days to decide if he wanted to take a lateral move to a new territory or if he wanted to take the severance package and do something else.

At the time I was still in nursing school and we needed the steady income of Matt working so we looked at different territories and determined that the Iowa City territory sounded good.  Matt interviewed with that manager, got the job and moved to Iowa...without me.  I had to stay in South Dakota to finish school.  Matt had already been gone Monday-Thursday two out of every 3 weeks but now he wasn't even going to live with me.

He moved to Iowa in January of 2007 and we got to see each other every weekend, either he would drive to South Dakota or I would drive to Iowa.  It was miserable and hard, we were paying two rents, two sets of bills, and a car payment along with several medical bills from our surgeries.  Life was difficult!

In May shortly after I graduated from nursing school Matt was offered a position in his old territory. Half of South Dakota, half of Nebraska, and the state of Wyoming.  It wasn't for sure but we scouted out Wyoming as a future place to live.  We didn't get word until the end of June (after I passed my boards!) that we would be moving.  I had 10 days to find a place to live, get everything out here, and find a job.  By the grace of God alone we found a place to live, I got two job offers and we got everything out to Wyoming on July 4th, 2007. 

I should add that we celebrated our first year of marriage by getting our puppy Allie :)  She's a sweet girl, very sensitive, but sweet girl!

When we moved out to Wyoming we were 10 hours away from my parents and where I grew up and 5 hours away from Matt's parents.  It was difficult, but God showed us how to rely on each other and make our marriage strong.  My brother told me that living away from our families would make us stronger and I believe that it did.

It was difficult on us for awhile because the 6000ft elevation wrecked havoc on my RA.  I flare once a year here where I end up calling in sick because I can't move.  I hate it, I hate being on steroids, I hate having to ask for help for ADL's, and I hate my disease.

We bought a house in February of 2009 and in May of 2009 we bought our puppy Charlie.  Adding the third dog screwed up the dynamics of our home.  We love all three of our dogs and have worked with a vet recently to help with the fighting between Charlie and Jake.  They are bloody fights that will not end unless we tear them apart.  I've had countless vet visits, countless antibiotics, and countless tears over what to do...until recently when Jake had a UTI.  My usual vet wasn't open so I brought him to the clinic we go to when our vet isn't open.  She suggested we put Jake on prozac.  It was worth a shot.  Jake has been on the prozac for 6 months now and we have only had two fights whereas before we would've had at least 6-8.  The change is amazing.  Jake is my puppy again, he's happy, he's not so anxious all the time, and he ignores Charlie whereas before everytime Charlie would move Jake thought he needed to intervene.

We started ttc after being married for 3 years.  I honestly thought that since my mom got pregnant easily and my sister got pregnant easily that I would too.  Nope, it took 18 months to get pregnant that first time and 4 weeks after we lost him.  It's been nearly two years since then and we have done two rounds of clomid, 3 IUIs, and have had one failed IVF attempt.  To say this has been hard on us is putting it lightly.  Matt is a rock, he was supportive for me when I screamed at God for taking our baby, he told me that God understood my pain that it was ok to cry out.  I remember breaking down in the kitchen...several times screaming and Matt was there for it all.

When we found out our IVF didn't work, Matt was home with me, held my hand during the phone call and held me when I got off the phone.  You can imagine that being hopped up on so many hormones can make a person very very emotional and after the initial wailing I dried my eyes and went to get a mani/pedi for our vacation the next day.

I guess what I trying to say in a lot of words is that God truly blessed me when He gave me Matt.  God helped us build a strong foundation to our marriage fully rooted in Him.  Between the three of us, there is nothing that can stand in our way!

'A cord of three strands is not quickly broken' Ephesians 4:12