I Still Do!

Hey Guys!

Happy New Year! I can't be late with that greeting because in my head it's only like January 5th. I have no idea what's going on with the calendar! How are we already at the end of week 3?  Dear calendar, please who's chasing you?

Anyway, today's topic was Instagram inspired! That customized explore button/tab thing on Instagram is right behind Agege bread on the list of amazing inventions! Exploration, stalking and 'checking out' made easy! It basically monitors the people you follow, the things you like, and even your searches (I think) and then presents an almost endless list of people and pictures that might interest you. Basically, you can just keep scrolling while the rest of your life is happening. Sounds kind of creepy, right? Yeah, but not really, if you're using the Internet at all, all this monitoring is already happening. So on today's exploration, I came across this page that's, basically all lovey-dovey, and after one long moist post came the hashtag #IstillDo. It caught my attention. Asides me adopting it as my official wedding anniversary hashtag whenever that time comes, it got my imagination rolling.

Past the say yes to the dress and bling culture, there's the real part where a person really has to "do" every day of his or her life till death happens. Hopefully it won't be such a chore, but wow, it is such a serious business! So serious that family pressure, immigration issues, horniness and loneliness must not be the only issues that drive a person to the altar!

To end this rantisode, let me let you in on what exactly came to my mind.

Found on Pintrest, she found it on Etsy.

So it's the Ty and Xie's fourth year anniversary and somehow Ty manages to wake up before Xie (the lighter sleeper) does. She's leaning over and whispering into his ears "Good morning baby..." and he is about slap off what he assumes to be a mosquito's buzzing until he hears "I still do". It's the same phrase he has heard after every major fight, on every birthday, and anniversary before now, so even in his sleep-wake state he knows who it is. So, he drops his hand in good time not to mess up the perfect opportunity to deliver the response that he's been practicing for weeks. It's their fourth wedding anniversary and nothing major by many standards, but this had been their toughest year yet in their marriage.  

They had both lost their jobs that year, and remained jobless for six whole months. The increased stress led to countless fights, and the revealing of sides that neither of them knew existed in their eight years of knowing each other. Ample make-up sex led to an unplanned pregnancy. Grudgingly believing that all things work together for the good of those that love God, they kept it. A baby coming to a financially struggling family sounds “perfect", they both thought. 

So many things were feeling wrong with the pregnancy and Ty wasn't sure if it was just the lack of excitement at the timing of the baby or if something really was wrong. It turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy and they lost the baby. Then the guilt came and so did the depression. Perhaps, "if we had loved the child a little more, he or she would have made it,” they thought. Then there was Xie’s cancer scare that sapped their joy for another few months. Thank goodness it was just a scare.

Things got better when they both got new jobs. But a new compulsive buying of baby items began. With it came erratic conversations of baby angels telling Ty that her child was accidentally flushed down the toilet and all they needed was a plumber". Many times they would think back and wonder if it really had been just a year since they were convinced marriage was too good to be true? Many many psychologist appointments down the road, sanity was in view, and slowly their life as it was the year before was returning. 

He knew how much she loved it when he said sweet things, so he'd spent some time in the weeks leading up to this and had found forty-nine and half lines of well-crafted words to summarize the weeks of the past year when they had lived out the "for worse" part of their vows. Each line was a reassurance that despite the craziness of it all he was grateful for what they had and would retake his vows if he to do. I did. I do and I still do.  

Mo.