Soul-Mates

I've been thinking a lot lately about my life and the people in it.  When you get stuck in a hospital room for 14 days with a two year old, you sort of get lost in your own thoughts after awhile.  One can watch Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and Toy Story 3 so many times before you go stir-crazy!

When I was in my late 20s and early 30s, I had a very dear friend.  She was a bit older, more like a big sister type person to me.  I could bounce a lot of things off her, I shared my hopes and dreams and disappointments.  She passed away about 11 years ago after a 5 year battle with breast cancer, I still miss her to this very day.  Before she passed away, I wrote her a letter and asked her to be my guardian angel and to help me find my "soul-mate".  A year or so later, I met my husband.  I can't help but think she was instrumental in picking him out for me, because both my husband and I felt this "push" to each other the day we met.  Hard to describe, but it felt like someone was guiding him to me and vice versa.  She obviously had a sense of humor because we met in the sponsor bar after we both had played our respective co-rec touch football games.  If you knew me or my husband, you would never guess we ever played "football".

My husband tells me he fell in love with me "instantly".  I was a little more cautious. I had crashed and burned enough times that I went into our early "dating" with the mindset that "I was getting a free meal" and no other expectations.  So sad, but true.  It didn't hurt that my husband was a great guy to hang out with - so not only did I get a free meal, he was good company too!  He was very patient with me, thank goodness.  About 3 months into our relationship, I realized that he wasn't just a "pretty cool guy to be with" but that I had fallen in love with him too - the whole package that he is.  He was my best friend from the start, we talked every day but one, since the night he called me to ask me out.  I always looked forward to his calls too!

He knew I had this philosophy that we needed to date through all 4 seasons, because like the seasons, we all change as we go through them.  A little over a year after our first date, he proposed to me and 9 months later we got married.

That's all well and good, but that is not what defines us as soul-mates.  To me, the definition of a soul-mate is - a person that you can share every part of your life, good, bad and other and still hold on tight to "love".  Lets face it, every day life can drag a relationship down. When you have a multitude of outside "factors" hitting you from every side - it can put a strain on a relationship.  My husband and I have traveled on a lot of bumpy roads in 7 years.  We lost two angel babies, dealt with infertility, job loss, sick parents, death of a beloved pet, and all the medical issues surrounding my son.  Through all of this, we have become stronger people individually and as a couple.  I know I can lean on him and I hope he knows that he can lean on me.  We might be crabby and mean to each other on occasion, but in the end - I know I couldn't and wouldn't want to ride down these bumpy roads without him.  He keeps me sane and strong.  He completes me, and he is my Soul-Mate!