Our 28th marriage anniversary

As we are approaching our 28th wedding anniversary I take the time to reflect and think, where did the time go? How come it went by so quickly?
These are questions that I can imagine that every couple that’s been married for a while must ask themselves. But again it seems the time has gone by very quickly.
During the first few years of our marriage we were in the clouds. As I used to work back then for an airline, and because we had unlimited free tickets it gave us the opportunity to fly to the US whenever we made some time. Just in 1983 we came to New York 15 times. Many of those were just for a few hours. We would leave on Friday night from Buenos Aires, arrive in New York Saturday morning, go shopping, go back to the airport and fly back that same night to arrive in Buenos Aires Sunday morning.
A friend of mine would say that the only way he would have a chance of chatting with me was to take a flight to New York with me.
But like many things in life it did not last long, as a matter of a fact it pretty much came to an abrupt halt. So, after analyzing all the alternatives we decided to move to the USA. A new challenge in a place we only knew as tourists. With the help of the church that adopted us, with faith and with the love for each other we embraced this move.
There were ups and downs.
Then came the kids. Victoria was beautiful, all you can imagine as a parent.
Then came Ian. From pretty much the beginning I noticed that something was not right. After 4 years he is diagnosed as P.D.D., pervasive development disorder, a type of autism. The world came to a complete halt. I lost my way, I was torn inside. I wondered in the wilderness for a very longtime. Angry, resentful, thinking that my God had abandoned me.
I have heard on TV that 83% of couples that have a child with autism will end up in divorce.
To say that this put a strain, pressure on our relationship is putting it mildly. Many times you would think: is this what marriage is all about? Is this the way it is supposed to turn out?
And then one day I reached the conclusion that life, the journey, is where the fun is, with its side streets, with its ups and downs, is what makes it interesting. It is not the final destination where the fun "will be". I also reached the conclusion that both our kids, with their challenges, with their successes and unsuccesses, and I specifically called it unsuccess because I don’t like the word failure, are what really matter.
It seems I have not spoken about my companion in this journey.
To say that she is a rock, a strong individual, with faith in her creator, would be putting it mildly. Does she have shortcomings, who doesn’t. She arguably has less than me. Somebody else in her shoes would have call it quits long time ago. She is a great mother, with great values, who never gives up. She has taken everything that life has thrown at her, and she has taken it standing.
So before I go much longer I can proudly call her my teammate and my companion.
During all our falls we have always stuck together. We have fallen and got up together.
That, I think in a nutshell, is what marriage is supposed to be.