The hard choices--Stace

     I will be married 5 years this year. My husband is in school. He has one semester left then he graduates and we are both really excited. School has been a hard thing for both of us. It has been hard for him because he doesn't love school, at all, but he made the hard choice to just buckle down and do it. It has been hard for me because not only is he gone a lot for school but he is working part time as well trying to support his family. 

      Once he started going to school full time we were both ready for it and ready to be able to put the school experience behind us. Maybe because he is so close to the finish but not quite there yet am I really realizing how hard this is and has been for both of us. We have a two year old and I am five months pregnant and he is working so hard that there are some days we are lucky if we get to see him for an hour. As our son has been getting older the more aware he is becoming and some days it is hard for him to have daddy gone so much. He really loves his daddy you see. And, as Steph can attest, I am a bit on the needy touchy feely side so it is hard not to be with him a ton. 

       It has also been hard seeing him come home at 10 o'clock at night looking worn down and pale knowing he has to get up and do it all over again the next day. As his wife and best friend I have tried to make things easier for him but getting pregnant has put a little chink in our routine. This pregnancy was not a surprise but its just thrown things a little off balance what with the first few months of pregnancy and the complete and total lack of energy, he has had to pick up a lot of slack. 

    Now that I am out of the first trimester and feeling better I thought, oh great now we can get balanced again. We can some, but not like it was before. There are lovely aches and pains when growing a person and some days it is worse then others. Today is one of those days. I guess that's why I am bringing it up. In life and in marriage there are just periods of time when life is harder or life isn't exactly fair or easy for one spouse or both. What has helped me get through is the wonderful support, and I know not everyone gets this, from family.  And even though in some ways having children while he is still in school has been harder its also been nice to have a really nice little one for company and joy.

  I guess the whole point  of this is that a lot of the time the hard choices are usually the best choices. Like going to school, or having children, or taking a particular job, deciding where to move, when to buy a house, there are so many hard and potentially life changing choices that need to be made all of the time. Its not like you can make one really hard choice and then be done with that for the rest of your life. I hope we won't be to afraid to do the hard things, they are scarey. But, I think as long as we can stay close to each other and make hard choices together that we can pull through every time.