We are Blessed

Tomorrow at midnight I will officially be done with my Master's classes. My degree will not be official until May 21st, but as far as I am concerned I am done.

Lately, I have been thinking about all that Gavin and I have accomplished/been through the past three years while Lesley has been a part of our lives.

~Gavin started his 22 month Master's program when Owen was 14 months old. He attended an entire weekend of classes once a month, leaving me home to tend to Owen. Owen at the time was a very demanding toddler and after just two months of Gavin starting his Master's program I became pregnant with Max, making staying home with a toddler all weekend long with no help even more exhausting.
~I started my 22 month Master's program in August of 2009, when Max was 5 months old. Gavin was not going to be finished until December 2009, so we spent 5 months with Gavin being gone one weekend for class and me another. During this time frame we were also working on selling our first home.
~At the start of the 2010-2011 school year, Gavin enrolled in 32 credits in order to go over two columns on the payscale, while I was still working on my last 16 credits of my Master's.
~In October we had an opportunity to purchase a new home, that needed a lot of work. Gavin spent every spare moment for 8 weeks fixing up the house, while I took care of the kids, again pregnant.
~We moved into our new home two weeks before Christmas.
~Lyla arrived two weeks early on Valentine's day.
~Now, I am finishing my Master's and gavin will be done with 16 of 32 credits next weekend.

In just five short years of marriage we have lived in six different apartments/houses, moved over 2000 miles away from our parents, become parents ourselves to three beautiful babies, stressed over our finances, and earned two Master's degrees. We have juggled all of this and I can still only count on one hand the number of major arguments we have had. Sure we have done our fair share of bickering, but arguing not so much.

We make a great team. We are both hard workers, who have the same vision for what we want out of life. We encourage each other; when one of us feels like we are drowning in obligations the other lends a hand. We make sure we always take time after the kids go to bed at night to regroup. And now more than ever we make sure that we go out at least once a month on a date night.

I know that no matter what life hands us we will tackle it together. I am proud of our accomplishments and of our relationship. They say that having a child, building/buying/selling a house, or working fulltime and going to school, are all things that can put stress on a marriage. We have done all of these things simultaneously and have not only survived but have strengthened our relationship.

I am not going to stress over whatever else life has in store for us, like the current proposal to not pay teachers for Master's Degrees. I know that together we will find a way to survive, because each night when I tuck my babies into bed, and hear them tell me they love me, I am reminded that we are blessed.