Reflecting on my Not so Perfect Wedding

You may be wondering about the title, and why I would want to blog about my not so perfect wedding.  Why would I want to share about one of the scariest times in my life? Sure, the pictures above look happy and blissful, but that day almost never happened.  

It's weird thinking about to 9 years ago today, and our wedding day. The flowers fragrance filling the old church my husband served as minister. Our family and friends gathered around us, surrounding us with love and support. A perfect dress. But, the only thing out of place was my soon to be husband, carefully being helped to the alter by his groomsmen. You see a our wedding was delayed a week.  My husband the Tuesday before our original wedding date began experiencing severe pain and swelling in his leg.  He thought he'd strained it at a church league softball. That it was just the remnants of one of his horrible night time leg cramps. I was at work over an hour away, unable to see his pain and to access what might be going on. It was until that night when I arrived at the home that would soon be ours together that I realized something was very wrong.  My soon to be husband, stubborn as always, assured me it was fine, but when he struggled to walk, it took my dad coming over to help me convince him to go to the emergency room.  It was there his condition went from concerning to life threatening. 

He had a blood clot in  his leg, but that wasn't the most concerning part of it. It was the at least six other smaller clots that had passed through his heart and embedded into his lungs.  The next few days were a blur.  Spending my days in the hospital with him. My nights at our hopeful home with my cat, and re-planning our wedding.  The biggest event of my life on hold until we knew whether or not Glen would make it through.  After an experimental procedure, he was released, but we weren't out of the woods yet.  As much as I wanted to postpone our wedding further, Glen insisted we would get married the next week. 

And, we did. On my 24th birthday.  Of course, things weren't perfect.  Glen was restricted in the length of time he could stand so we had to have a stool for him to sit on for the ceremony.  He had to walk with a cane when he did walk, and the only time he stood unaided was our first dance at our reception.  

That was not so perfect wedding, but I wouldn't trade it for the world because I almost didn't get to be his wife. I almost didn't get to  marry my childhood best friend.  The boy I had fallen for in the 5th grade while he read the morning weather report over the intercom, and spent years admiring after him until he finally saw me for me.  I may write happily ever afters for a living, but the best one of all is my own.