That picture to the left is of me and Celeste 15 years ago today.  I know that it’s nothing new to hear that time flies, but I don’t care who you are I think you always end up reaching these milestone days and wondering how you got there so fast.  Every once in a while I do something silly like calculating how many diapers I changed over the span of about seven years (about 16,000 for the record) and it floors me when I see it. So if instead of thinking about being married for 15 years I think about it as being married for 5,475 days it knocks the wind right out of me.  But I mean that in a good way.

I’m not going to speak for Celeste, but I can tell you that I’m happier and more fulfilled now than I was 15 years ago, or even 7 years ago.  Like so many couples out there Celeste and I had moments when we weren’t sure we’d get from day 2,555 to 2,556.  We had three young children, money was tight, and whatever romantic notions we had about life had been knocked out of us by the real thing.  Somehow we weathered those storms and emerged as a much stronger couple than we entered.  Now at day 5,476 I can honestly say that I can’t imagine my life without her. 

And of course there are the kids.  They actually represent our first trial because we had our oldest, Michael, before we’d been married even a year.  Erin followed 13 months later and Justin rounded out the bunch just 2 1/2 years after that.  Three kids in four years will either break you or turn you into a kind of mush that you hope someday turns as hard and firm as concrete.  Luckily we went the mush route, and today we stand at the beginning of what we’ve been warned will be our greatest trial: teenage children.

I have confidence we’ll weather this trial okay as well.  You see, Celeste is not only a magnificent woman she’s an incredible mother.  She knows when to be empathetic and she knows when to be stern.  Virtually every decision is made with the kids in mind and they know it.  She’s a great balance for me since I’m a "just get over it" kind of guy and I’m about as empathetic as George Patton. 

Finally there’s her treatment of her fourth child, yours truly.  She’s supportive when I need her to be, kicks me in the butt when I need it most, and she makes sure my world continues to spin in the right direction.  She’s truly my better half, and I don’t know where I’d be without her.  I do know that I couldn’t be close to this happy.

As a couple you don’t weather fifteen years of marriage and three kids without experiencing some, uh, changes.  So I’ll end by giving you a picture of that fresh faced couple you see above after said changes.  I feel luckier than any man should be allowed, and all because Celeste chose me over 15 years ago.  Believe me, it’s better to be lucky than good.