Diamond's Are Forever: It's a life I've decided to live

Once upon a time a very close friend of mine told me, "You may not be exactly where you want to be in life today, but if you look back on your life, even a year back, would you have pictured yourself doing the things you're doing now and making it work?" That has really put life in to perspective for me lately. Life throws some wicked curve balls, no doubt. But if we take it one step, one moment, one day at a time, we can make it!

Taking a four year walk down memory lane, I can't believe how far Zac and I have come, and how incredibly fast the time has passed. When we started dating, Zac lived at his dad's house and I at my mom's. I was, regretfully, a jobless college drop out, and he was relearning to live a life he was in control of again. Not the proudest of times in our individual lives, but it was the perfect time for two imperfect people to come together {and get it together}.

Life was mostly play that first year Zac and I were together. We accomplished a few things such as moving out of our parents' homes, and I gave the school thing another go. {We'll later learn that was a bad idea.} We spent the majority of our first year falling in love. We were disgusting. Constant mushy texting, hundreds of kisses daily, making it through the week to spend the weekend together, butterflies and holding hands. All of it. It was oh so much fun. That year was one of the best years of my life!

Another year later I had moved from apartment to apartment, totaled my cute car, quit school {again}, had my wallet {with my freshly cashed paycheck} stolen, and embarrassingly enough blew through three different jobs. How could life be so cruel after having such a wonderful previous year? I honestly felt so low, and felt like something evil was testing me. Through out that hellacious year, Zac stood right by my side supporting my every move {with the exception of quitting school}. He could have easily left. I wouldn't have blamed him in the least. In fact, I felt like I was almost waiting for the last good thing in my life to walk out. Luckily for me, love is stronger than evil. Instead of walking out he pushed me to make the best all the crappy situations If it wasn't for him being my rock that year, I really don't know that I would have made it.
Later that year, after things slowly started looking up, we took a big step and decided to live together. I moved in with him and his two roommates. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about moving in to a house with three men, it sounded a bit.. uh... dirty. It ended up being one of, if not the, best decision I made that year. I think we had known if we started by living with other roommates if, for some reason, it didn't work, we weren't contracted to stay.
It only took a year of living together to make the decision to get our own little apartment, just the two of us. Apartment shopping was not the most fun experience we have ever had. Zac was a bit too picky, and I perhaps wasn't picky enough. I just wanted our own space and he just wanted floors that didn't creek. We finally picked the best place, it was our own home filled with our own things. Despite the size and amount of neighbors, it was perfect! We were playing the ultimate game of house.
In our hearts, we both knew it was only a matter of time before we would tie the knot. {Assumingly} he was just waiting for the "right time", I was just waiting for him to ask. However, things were going so good it was really no rush. Back to the quote mentioned at the beginning of this post, I never would have thought the previous year(s) we would have been living in our own cozy apartment just the two of us, and making it all work. But there we were, content and happy.
Three short months after living in our own place, life threw us one of those curve balls. A cute little curve ball whom we later named Drayze Zacary Diamond. Many stories have been told about how Drayze came in to the picture, the accurate story is another post for another day. ;) It was a bit intimidating knowing we were going to bring another human in to this crazy world, but we knew we could do it. I guess now was the "perfect time" to put that ring on it. Our wedding was beautiful and our child came out perfect! Once again, we found ourselves saying, "I never would have pictured us being here, living the life we're living, and making it work!"
The point of this long summary of our life is, when we find our negative self inside telling us, "life is too hard, we're never going to make it, we're drowning, what's the point" {we all know that list goes on and on and on and on and on} close your eyes, take another look at life and realize we are making it, life is completely worth it. Try to remember what we do have and how far we have made it. Things tend to work themselves out, and it's not the things that are most important anyway. The bills will get paid when they get paid. The laundry and dishes will get done when they get done. Maybe today there isn't dinner on the table, and that's ok. As long as we stay close with our loved ones and put them first, the rest can wait. Tomorrow isn't promised so why waist today worrying about the stuff? I am forever grateful for my beautiful friends great words of wisdom. I hope those who read this can too be inspired by her words. Take today to realize how beautiful life really is and appreciate how far you, individually have made it in life. You have accomplished a lot, be proud of yourself.