Dominican Housewife Chronicles - One year down and a lifetime to go

It's hard for me to believe that it's been a year since I got married again.  It's a day that I won't forget.  The ceremony and the reception were amazing.  It was actually my dream wedding.  Although I had been married before I never had a real wedding where I wore a wedding gown and had a reception.  I should mention that it was all put together by my husband and his family.  It took me totally by surprise.  I expected a small private ceremony at our house.  The only thing I regret about that day now is that all of my special people weren't there to witness it.  That is the only thing I would change.

It has been a year full of learning experiences.  Some good and some have required a lot of patience and prayer on my part.  I have learned so much from my husband, not just about his culture but simple life lessons. We have figured out how to communicate with each other and it's sort of an unwritten rule that we don't leave conflict or thick air between us for too long.  Even when we can't agree and neither one of us wants to back down, one of us finds a way to say I love you even though I don't agree with you.  Trust me I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture because where there are roses there are also thorns.  There have been many days and nights where I've thought to myself What the heck did you do and why?  I've wondered how could this possibly work when we're from different cultures, we aren't fluent in each others native language.  There's a significant age difference.  So many things seemingly working against us but yet as I write this today I feel as though our relationship is much stronger today than it was a year ago when we took our vows.  We've learned how to bridge those gaps with prayer, love and compromise.  Again not perfect by any means but as my grandmother used to say anything worth having takes work. This past year has been work ya'll I mean real work  but I've enjoyed almost every minute of it lol.

I remember one day my husband and I were having a difficult time communicating and I said to him that I wished he could understand everything I said.  He said the most profound thing to me.  He said that God knew what he was doing when he made our relationship so quiet.  He said that if he could understand everything I said to him we probably wouldn't be together.  LOL okay that's funny but oh so true as well.  Another fond memory I have is one time when we were disagreeing and we couldn't seem to compromise I said well I'm not sure how this is going to work.  He looked at me and said I don't know either but I love you.  With that we agreed to disagree on that issue but mutual trust, love and respect always wins.  That mutual respect thing is a big one.  I can honestly say that in my prior relationships that was the biggest missing piece.  I do realize that it's still early and I guess we are still technically in the honeymoon phase and although that's true we've reached this one year milestone in the face of adversity and honestly a bunch of people holding their breath because it seemed too good to be true.  At times I was also holding my breath.  I can't recall when I finally exhaled and decided to embrace it but I did and it's been such a relief.  Taking each moment as it comes and just enjoying it as much as possible.  I'm not saying it's okay to just live in the moment and never have a plan but I'm saying that while we're planning enjoy the moments along the way.

I also realize that one of biggest challenges lies ahead of us, him coming to the United States.  To this point our relationship has been in somewhat of a controlled environment.  I've been doing all the compromising, learning and growing from a cultural standpoint.  When it's his turn to experience a completely different culture will he be able to adapt as well as I have?  That's the wildcard but again based on the foundation we've built over the past two years that we've been together I feel confident that we will be able to navigate our way through the storms that may lie ahead.  He doesn't read my blogs but I'll say it anyway Happy Anniversary Amor.  I'm looking forward to many more years to come.