it never rains, but…

…it certainly does pour sometimes.

I remember it was about this time two weeks ago when I started to feel a little stressed out. My beloved and I had just a week to prepare for our own belated wedding reception. After a small family wedding last fall, we were finally going to host a big party to celebrate with everyone else. We’d planned a barbecue in our backyard for over 100 of our closest friends… and we’d decided to do most of the preparation ourselves. So yes, this time two weeks ago I was starting to feel a little stressed.

Thankfully, my beloved is pretty good at recognizing my stress and he calmed me down. We talked about what needed to be done, who was going to do it and when. A week seemed like enough time between the two of us to check off all the items on our list. And it likely would have been… if we’d had the chance.

Instead, the following morning I picked up a pile of records and threw my back out something wicked. And this was in the middle of a holiday weekend – there wasn’t a single chiropractor within 100 miles who was working that weekend. So my beloved proved once again why he is so beloved as he worked tirelessly day and night – cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, and starting 40 lbs of potato salad. I lay on the floor and watched.

A few days later, when I got an appointment to see my lovely chiropractor, he told me that this wasn’t the same easily-fixed problem that I’ve had in the past. A week to ten days, he told me. I blinked back a few tears, trying not to think about how I was going to greet 130 people while lying on the floor. Then I scheduled daily adjustments and massages leading up to the party. Each day, it was marginally better and I thought that I just might manage to make my own wedding reception.

So , the big day arrived. Imagine a party with everyone invited from two-week old babies to little old “I-don’t-tell-my-age” ladies. Beautiful sunny skies, lots of laughter and everyone relaxed and smiling. Thankfully I was able to enjoy almost all of it, and my beloved and I celebrated exactly how we wanted.