Twenty years ago this all started. Nineteen years ago we moved to America. Almost eighteen years ago we became three. Twelve years ago, four. Along the way we’ve added a cat, a dog, and a frog. We’ve added a house, and some cars came into our lives and then exited. We’ve moved a time or two. We’ve changed jobs a time or three. We’ve renovated a bathroom, then a kitchen, then a carport, then another bathroom, then a basement. We’ve pulled up shrubs and planted trees, added a shed and a smoker to the backyard along with swings, a trampoline, and some hammocks. We’ve fought yellow jackets in the yard and battled roaches in the house. We’ve turned a mixed surface parking area into a lovely concrete parking lot. We’ve planted blueberries, tomatoes, zucchini, raspberries, peas, elderberries, radishes, figs, cucumbers, blackberries, and more that I can’t even begin to recall. We’ve cut down trees in the backyard and let bushes grow into trees in the front. We’ve been to countless volleyball games, soccer games, and basketball games. We’ve had a leaking roof, a flooding basement, various electrical mysteries. We’ve lost parents and gained friends, lost touch with friends and turned friends into new family. Uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents have passed away. We’ve amassed a wealth of Christmas decorations and gone through passing periods of Halloween decor. We’ve walked around these blocks in our neighborhood more times than we care to recall, ridden our bikes together miles upon miles, played boardgames, card games, and video games until we’re tired of them and they become permanent closet inhabitants. We’ve cooked thousands of pierogies, traveled thousands of miles, spent thousands of dollars on things that later turned out to be less than important. We’ve been to the emergency room, to family care physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, dentists, and orthodontists. We’ve had surgeries and celebrations, baptisms and funerals, and quiet evenings looking at the Christmas tree and drinking tea. We’ve had ups, downs, lateral and diagonal movements. We’ve laughed, cried, and sat bewildered. We’ve hoped and regretted. We’ve planned, failed, and succeeded.
Through it all, this has been the one, stable constant. And that’s all I need to look to the next twenty years with a smile on my slowly-wrinkling face.