How Things Change

Recently, Mike and I got to laughing over our huge remodeling job in our previous house. It was an enormous under-taking that took 2 full years. When you're living through something, it doesn't always occur to you how tough it really is until you reflect on it years later. When I think about that remodeling job now, I just shake my head over all the dishes I washed in a laundry tub, all the meals I prepared on a snack table and the time I came home from work and Mike had torn the entire ceiling out and all I could see was rafters. But I remember one day when we were up to our knees in the remodeling job and Jay was about 18 months old I carefully broached a very sensitive topic with Mike, having a second child. I was prepared for a huge discussion and in my mind I had rehearsed answers to every excuse (as to why it wouldn't be a good idea) I anticipated he would have. To my surprise his only response was, "Okay, but not in this house." Mike finished the remodeling job, we put the house up for sale and someone else got to enjoy all of Mike's hard work.
I met Mike when I was 20 and dated him for 4 years. He was adamant he only wanted one child and for anyone who truly knows Mike knows no one pushes him into any situation or decision he's not comfortable with. But he's also one of the most reasonable people I've ever encountered and he never ceases to surprise me. Years later when I asked him why he agreed to a second child so easily, his response was, "It was a simple request."
Just the other day Jay and Nick were outside playing in the snow together and we were watching them from the window. They were pushing each other in the snow and laughing. I said to Mike, "Aren't you glad you had two of them?" His response was, "I'd have two more of them if we could afford it." And that another example of how he surprises me and how children change the way you view your life.