on marriage and friendship

 hey guys! i'm teaming with gina from contemplating beauty and morgan from mama loves papa for another marriage series! this week's topic; marriage and friendship.
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 only a true friend would do this with me. bless his heart.

 
the first time i spoke to robert face-to-face was on our first date. he was wearing a buttercup yellow polo and had just washed his dad's car. his hair was combed to the side and my entire family was waiting in the den for him to come pulling into the driveway. he shook my dad's hand and my mama jokingly grilled him on a scandalous story she'd heard. something about his rolling a house. and putting a lawn mower on a roof. and driving the slowest and easiest-to-recognize getaway vehicle possible: a volkswagen vanagon.

i didn't know him at all. didn't know how he liked his steak, or what he did after school. didn't know that he had a brother and that his father was a pastor. i didn't know that he had an affinity for instrumental piano music and was a highly decorated boy scout.

but i learned those things. i learned all of them over the course of our dinner date. and i've kept learning.

sometimes (quite often, actually), i turn to robert and say, "i think it would have been cool if we were friends first. like, just hanging out together, then one day, you looked at me and saw the woman you'd been searching for." instead, it was full-blown romance, from day one. case in point: all his friends call him rob, or robbie, but i absolutely can't. not for the life of me.

but right up there with romance and kisses and butterflies and stars, there is a rock-solid friendship between us now. because there has to be. you have to actually like the person you're married to, as crazy as that might sound. because love is truly magical and life-changing, but there's something to be said about just laughing with him. sitting in a room watching the bachelor on a monday night, not even really speaking, but just being truly, completely comfortable in the weight of a dark room together. saturday lunch dates. secret handshakes.

so yes, we didn't start out as friends, but it's been a heck of a journey learning this man, and finding that after all, our souls are the same, and that's a constant truth. one that was born the day we were. and every stumbling block, heartbreak, rude boy, ridiculous girl, and question we ever had led him to my doorstep on august 30, 2003. and BFF was just a natural progression from there:)

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what are your thoughts on relationships and friendships? any tips? do share!