We aren't doing anything special today. Partly because I am so sick I can't stand up for more than five minutes, but also because it is Thursday, and mid-week celebrations don't work very well for us. So I didn't throw off any plans by contracting the plague (which is what it feels like I have).
We do have plans though. Big plans. Every year on our anniversary we celebrate our "Family Birthday." This is the day our family was born. We all go to the toy store and pick out our own present (within reason) then we come home and wrap them. Everyone gets to pick their favorite dinner, so I usually make three or four things, and we have cake and ice cream and sing "Happy Birthday to Us," open presents and generally enjoy hanging out together and being a family.
That will be our Saturday celebration. I think I will try and steer everyone toward outside toys so that we can soak up as much spring sunshine as possible. And I'm hoping I'll be well enough to enjoy it.
It is a fun tradition, and a nice way to spend time with our kids, but I'm hoping the deeper message will sink in as well. That marriage is important. That a family is created long before the children arrive. That while our children are an important part of our family, they didn't build it and they can't break it.
I know it isn't trendy or popular right now to say that a traditional family is the best way to go. It certainly isn't the ONLY way, and it doesn't make other families bad. But there isn't a child in the world who doesn't wish to be born to parents who dearly awaited him and who love each other and who will be together forever. That is the ideal. Lots of times we fall short. Life, sickness, war, things get in the way of that. And we get up and move on and pick up the pieces as best we can. But it is still important to remember (and teach) that there is a right way and we are all reaching for that.
