A first in three years

This weekend will be mine and my wife's 11th wedding anniversay. It will be the first time in three years we will have properly celebrated the occasion. We actually had plans two years ago but we had a surprise special delivery with our daughter who arrived two months early and spoiled the plans. I did bring Indian take-away and a bottle of fine Australian red wine to the hospital for the occasion but it really didn't count as we were more concerned with the health of our premmie little girl who was placed in the NICU (Neonatal intensive Care Unit) at the time. My wife wasn't too flash anyway only having had an emergency caesarean section 24 hours earlier. Besides, who in their right mind would take a date to the hospital and expect to enjoy it - talk about romantic!

Last year we organised a celebration for our daughter's first birthday (because we didn't get a chance to celebrate her birth properly with all the premmie drama) and I was too sick to organise and celebrate our anniversary as well. This was a great event but I crashed pretty hard for the following six weeks. I think my wife was too exhausted to celebrate our anniversary anyway because she did much of the preparation in the final days.

This year we'll be doing both! So things have improved on last year. I am looking forward to a weekend away with just the two of us. I am absolutely thrilled with the propsect of this celebratory weekend as I am in the best health I have been in since this major episode of depression. It means my wife is pretty much guaranteed to have enjoyable company on our special occasion (at least for the afternoons and evenings because I am still a bit slow in the mornings) and not have to worry about, or be reminded of, the difficulties we have experienced with my depression - at least for a weekend.