You and Me

I've never been a huge Dave Matthews Band fan. Sure, I think I owned one cd of his back in the day and I've always enjoyed the saxophone on the song "Ants Marching", but I've never tried desperately to get concert tickets and I've never even downloaded one of his songs on ITunes......until now that is. I was driving along this past week when a relatively new (I assume) song of his came on satellite radio. The words touched me and I immediately thought of my husband. It's called "You and Me". I didn't spend tons of time paying attention to the verses but the simple chorus lyrics are

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby

You and me together, yes, yes.

Ryan and I have been through quite a bit together. I know that there are certainly other couples that have been through so much more than we have, but I do feel we've been thrown some curveballs in our eight years of marriage.

We have a child with a chronic life-threatening disease. Cystic fibrosis is a part of our everyday lives. There are times when it is very challenging and scary but I will never forget what Ryan said to me just hours after Hayden's official diagnoses came through. He made a decision for us that we were not going to be a "woe is me" family. We weren't going to go through life acting like Debbie Downers and feeling sorry for ourselves. Furthermore, we certainly weren't going to raise Hayden with that mindset. We were going to hold our heads high and, through our faith in God, our support from family, friends, and each other, we were going to stay positive. We were going to give Hayden as normal a life as possible while giving her every chance to succeed in a life that would already provide many challenges. I have forever been thankful that he stepped up and made that decision for our family in that very trying time. And I think that's another reason I love this song. There is a line that says:

And when the kids are old enough we're going to teach them to fly.

Isn't that what every parent wants for their children. To raise them with such love and support that they can grow up to be confident enough to fly - to soar, even- toward their goals in life. I want my children to belive there are no boundaries to what they can accomplish if they work hard and put their minds to it.

In addition to facing the CF diagnosis together, we have supported each other through times of anxiety and depression, the loss of a parent, the loss of many grandparents, the loss of a job and the ensuing job search, and the list goes on and on. Together we have made it through it all, standing side-by-side, loving each other more and more with every trial. I truly believe that, like the song says,........ together, he and I can do anything. Just try to stop us...........