Today we celebrate four years of marriage! I feel like we’ve packed a lot in these four years: home renovations, job changes, a long sabbatical road trip, three miscarriages, an on-going global pandemic, a successful pregnancy, and, in a matter of days, parenthood.

On April 22, 2017, I never could have anticipated the events of the last two years of our marriage. Two years ago, we were about to find out about our first pregnancy right as we returned home from our wonderful four-month RV trip around the country. From the moment of our first miscarriage in June 2019, it has felt like so much is spinning out of control, first in our world then in the actual world, and the only static thing we have to return to every day is each other.

Sometimes I wonder if I would have written different wedding vows if I would have known these parts of our journey. What would I have promised my husband (and what would he have promised me) if we knew these storms were coming? I know we both promised to grow together and not apart, and that is something all of these storms have forced us to confront. If anything, I know that I couldn’t have gotten through these years without him, and that I definitely choose the right person to be my life partner (even if he is still really not great at washing dishes haha!).

And now, any day now, we will start a new chapter together: parenthood. We have waited over two years for this moment and now that it’s here, I’m filled with both apprehension about how we will handle these new roles of mom and dad, the most important roles we’ll ever have, and relief that we have finally reached this milestone after all of the pain, expense, and time. Watching Josh prepare to become a father has been so sweet and I know watching him with our baby will only make me love him deeper. However, I know the marriage we have experienced the last four years is about to change dramatically and we’ll have to continue to grow together instead of apart. We’re pretty good at being the Muncy-Piens plus Nora, but it’ll be transition to be the Muncy-Piens plus baby and Nora.

So here we are, another pandemic anniversary where we won’t be celebrating at a fancy restaurant, hotel, or city. What’s funny is that we have never celebrated our anniversaries in a fancy way. For our first anniversary, Josh tried to take me to one of the fanciest, most expensive restaurants here, and my spend-thrift self got so upset about it he cancelled the reservations and we got in a huge fight. It’s funny to look back on now (and we often laugh about it), but I told him next year or whenever we can actually sit inside of a restaurant again safely, he can take me to THE fanciest place he can because I’m absolutely tired of not being able to enjoy a public place. Maybe next year for anniversary #5.