Marley and Me and Us

"Trying to have a baby? Did you pull the goalie?"
-Marley and Me

Last night was date night. We haven't had one in a loooong time and were in definite need. The last week has not gotten much better than my last entry--worse really. Just a tough week.

So we thought we would take some time together and see a movie. My husband's mom had said she had seen Marley and Me and thought it was hilarious (with a capital "H") and that it was completely my husband and my story.

That in mind, and needing to find some humor in the craziness of our life, we set out for dinner and a movie.

Maybe it is because our life so paralleled theirs, but it just hit too close to home and we were both teary eyed leaving the theater.

Dinner afterward was awkward. It was actually as though some of our fights and "conversations" had been recorded and played back to us. Very uncomfortable and not as funny as I had hoped.

This part really hit home for me. It was the part in which Jennifer Anniston speaks about having given up so much having children, how she feels like a bad parent for thinking that way and yet it is truly how she feels while she acknowledges her decision to have them.

That it's just hard and nothing can prepare you for how hard.

This is so true, I felt. No one can prepare you for how hard or how wonderful. How these things are often just two sides to the coin of life. That one makes sense of the other.

After some awkward silences over our sushi, my dear husband finally brightened and said, "Well, at least now we know we're normal!"

So true. In an odd way the film was validating and liberating. Seeing it on the big screen may have made it just too real. But no one is immune to the changes parents go through as they move from individuals to a family (of individuals).

At least now we know we're normal.