One month...

One month down, folks. We have been married one month as of today. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a month because to me, it feels like just yesterday we were standing on that altar. So one month in….what better time than to renew our vows? I mean, it’s been a month, right?

We did exactly that this last weekend. Our sponsor couple invited us to this event put on by the marriage ministry through our church. It was called a “Night of Romance.” We figured, sure, why not? It’s basically a wedding reception thrown by this group at our church where you have dinner, dancing, door prizes and renewing your vows. A wedding reception, but without all the stress. We really liked working with our sponsor couple, so we were more than honored when they invited us to be their guests.

We weren’t disappointed. Stepping into the parish life center, we were stopped to take our picture, just like at prom. Stepping into the gym, we were taken back to a mix of our wedding reception and our high school prom. I joked that we could relive our proms and be each other’s dates since we didn’t know each other back then. (Honestly, I would have preferred T be my date anyway.)

Dinner was great, and shortly after we finished dessert, the priests at our church called us all to the floor if we wanted to renew our vows. Of course we did, and as we walked to the gym floor, the priest who married us jokingly called us out saying “hey, you haven’t been married but a month! You can’t do this yet!” (This is the same priest who when we saw him five months earlier walking out of mass, he was holding a baby and said “hey, I got one of these before you did!” Keeping in mind this was the priest who during our ceremony said we would have 13 kids…)

Renewing our vows, I was brought back to that day on September 18th. Staring into T’s eyes, I felt the same rush of love, and I’ll admit, I teared up a bit. However I wanted to add a few things in there for that one month of marriage…

“I take you as my husband. I promise to love you in good times and in bad, sickness and in health, for better or for worse…I promise to be there with you when both of our cars die and we need to shell out $1,000 in repairs, when our jobs cause us stress, when our families cause us stress, I promise to hold your hand when you get a flu shot if you’ll hold mine, to always laugh and try to burp louder than you when you burp at the dinner table…I promise to be your best friend and your biggest fan, your strongest supporter…”

It’s crazy that it’s only been a month, but so much has changed since then, too, and man, it’s only been a month! Watching couples who have been married for 40 years dance to their wedding song, I was trying to picture us, 40 years down the road, still so in love, dancing to our song and celebrating our marriage.

While we were dancing to our song, I looked deeply into T’s eyes and saw myself in them. Giving him a kiss, I said “I’d do it all over again.” And I would, and that feeling…that will never change.