The traditional gift for a 20th wedding anniversary is China, and Briant literally gave me that! So here we are now on December 18th celebrating 21 years of being married while living in Beijing for five months, and after walking around in HelloMart with a variety of Chinese food options, we chose to be fancy and go to Taco Bell. :) It was the first time we'd eaten there since we left the States, so it was a real treat. We were actually trying to make it to an early 3D showing of Wonder Woman 1984, and we didn't have much time from when Briant ended Mandarin classes to when the movie would start. So we knew dinner needed to be fast and easy. It was perfect. It didn't taste like home, but it was as close to American Taco Bell that I think we could get. I actually wish our Taco Bells back home served sweet potato fries like this one did!
And we had a laugh at Briant's little doughnut balls. He was expecting more than three. ;)
So I guess there's no real traditional gift for a 21st anniversary, but suggested gifts are brass or nickel. I think a few of our purchases over the past few months qualify. ;)
All week we reflected on the last 21 years and the memories of different school and job opportunities and raising the kids in different states and countries, what we've learned about the world, ourselves, and each other. We had moments of laughter, moments of thoughtfulness, and moments of wonder as we think of our future. A number of times, we wondered about different "what if" scenerios--what if Bri hadn't gone to law school, what if I hadn't gone to graduate school and taught special education, what if I had just gone to the Indiana Jones Trilogy that Bri asked me to instead of telling him that I had to study for a test 3.5 years before the infamous barbecue where sparks flew after my mission, ;) what if we had joined the foreign service earlier, what if we had invested my hard earned babysitting money in Amazon in 2000 instead of 2017, etc. And the big question was, what if we could go back 21 years knowing what we know now, would we want to? What pain could we avoid and prevent by going back and applying what we know now? We concluded that every decision we've made has led us to where we are now and we think it was all important to actually get us to this point. We don't know if there's anything that we should or could have changed, that would have still kept us on this trajectory of happiness and contentment. We are where we need to be, and all of this crazy living we've done has helped develop us individually and strengthen our love and commitment to each other and our marriage. Our rough imperfections are slowly, and beautifully softening as we help each other and are taught by our patient and loving children. They seem to be our greatest reminders of our weaknesses and we appreciate their patience with us as we learn to be better parents. The past 21 years haven't been easy, but they've certainly been worth it and I'm grateful to have gone through them with my honey bunny, cuddle bear Bri who I love with all my heart.
0 comments: