Date Night

Once upon a time, we were young and in love (not really).

We had plenty of dates. In fact, every time we were together, it was a date.

I, a young working professional still in college. He, a young man in the military. We traveled. We wore fancy black tights with corduroy shorts. (Well, I did anyway.)

Here we are, fancy clothes and all, not having the faintest idea that I was pregnant. Young, naive, planning on starting a family 'in another five years or so...'

And then, just like that, we were parents. Parents of a tiny, screaming, human being.

Suddenly, two weeks after this human's birth, we spent our second anniversary playing cards on our living room floor instead of going out for a date.

We spent every minute together..as three...day and night.

Mommy didn't work any more. Money was tight. Date night was a thing of the past.

And then...three became four!

We had this blue-eyed beauty in our lives. Day and night, two boys.

We got into a groovy-groove eventually. Man-on-man, as Jon called it. One of us would tend to one child, the other to the other child.

Eventually, we became a well-run machine, a beautiful family, two adults, two children.

Busy. Very busy.

Then, our perfectly manned family of four became a family of five. We went from man-on-man defense to playing the zone.

Life was full. Very full.

Look, we're so busy that we can't even take a decent picture of the boys. Can't even put clothes on Gable or make sure everyone's eyes are open or that they don't have green marker covering their arms.

Finally, after three children. After being parents for eight years, we went out of town. For two whole days and one night, we left our children.

And life has never been the same.

We had one of those 'moments'. One of those moments that a vow is made. A vow that no matter how difficult, no matter how inconvenient or costly, an effort must be made to find time to date.

It has not always been easy and we have gotten off course many, many times. But for about the past year, we have had a date night at least once a month. Cleared the schedules, booked the sitter (or teenage son), bought pizza and a movie for the kids...and left.

I find myself looking at the calendar on difficult days, checking the number of days left until date night. And this past weekend, it was date night.

No kids, no phones, no interruptions.

Just the two of us. And that, my friends, was worth the eight-year wait.