What Will Become of Us? 7.21.10

Dear Audrey,
That's such a dramatic question no? But it was a real question I asked your dad in the middle of kissing him a few months after we'd met. What we were feeling was so intense that it scared me and I didn't understand where it was taking us. It was 1999 and yes, I was just overly dramatic.

He whispered, "Get married?"

When we started thinking about having a child, I remember I'd try to have us talk about our "vision" for our family. He told me in his vision, we'd all go to the library on Saturday mornings and he would make and pack us sandwiches.

During 26 hours of long, miserable labor, I really didn't snap at him once. But finally, when I got to the pushing out the head part, and found it just as the childbirth instructor had explained: a "ring of fire," he went to use one of the "encouraging phrases" I'd come up with. Things I thought would help me have a natural childbirth. "You're amazing!" he said.
"Shut up," I replied.