SPIRIT: Mike and Me

Framed by the metal detector!

Today, I celebrate my husband, Mike. We eloped nine years ago in a courthouse in Tolleson, Arizona.


Mike and I have known each other since he was nine and I was five.  Our parents are friends and though we became friends as we grew up, we never dated in school.   It seems like Mike was always part of my family, like a brother or cousin, making it strange when we became a couple.  I even lived with him and his mother for a while when I was in high school!

Mike & me, 1985

I was 20 when Mike and I began dating; it was surreal.  Here was someone who I had always known and always loved, but now I was learning about him in a new way.  I knew almost immediately that we would marry someday.  We fit together too well, had too much in common to only remain friends.  Less than a year after we began dating, we wed.  (Tip:  Don't elope without telling your family, especially if you are an only child, like me!  Also, make sure you tell your family right away instead of keeping it a secret for a few months!)

Mike makes me a believer in marriage.

Over the years our relationship has continued to evolve.  We became lovers, then husband and wife, and now parents.  Sometimes being married is hard.  In a way, we are like conjoined twins, sharing a body, but with different brains; we have different ideas of which way to go, but we have to move together.

Exchanging rings

Mike and I don't always agree on what to do with our time or our money.  Our ideas about how to be a good parent sometimes conflict.  However, when we dated we talked about what was important to us; we determined our values and what we wanted in a family.  When we have differences, we work through them.  At the end of the day, all that really matters is that we love each other; we love the family that we have built together.

I'm not saying our marriage is perfect, but I can say that Mike is perfect for me.

I just married my best friend