In church yesterday, it was announced that the Rockford Catholic Diocese has dedicated 2011 as Marriage-Building year. Normally an announcement like that would go on deaf ears for me. But the timeliness of it, after only finding out a few days before that a friend’s marriage was ending, I listened. A statement in particular caught my attention. The statement of how much God loves me that he gave me the love I have in marriage. No truer of a statement could that be. Too often you hear of marriages failing. They hit bumps in the road and just call it quits. Or they never do get married, because they think they don’t need to. An easy out. Marriage is an important sacrament in the Catholic church, but it is important in the secular world too. The bond and commitment one has with another and to solidify it with marriage is a wonderful thing to do. My married life has not been all wine and roses, but I can’t imagine my life without Kevin. We argue and fight over the same things most couples do. But unlike most couples we are dealing with Kevin’s RSD. That in itself is a huge hurdle. The Kevin I first met, is not the Kevin today. He has evolved. Evolved into one amazingly person. I can sit and cry about lost times/things. Or I can look at the gift God gave me. How blessed I am that I crossed paths that night I met Kevin. That night changed my life forever. Kevin might not be able to do the physical things he could do back then, but he does far more for me now then he did then. I am a better person now because of his struggle with RSD. He has made me a better person, a better friend, a better mother and a better wife. I am still a work in progress, but I am on the right track because of my marriage to Kevin.
Regardless of the outcomes of Kevin’s interview with the Chicago Tribune today, or the disability claims he has been fighting for, it is Kevin that I care about. I want him to succeed, but even if he falls, I will be there to pick him back up. I want him to be pain free or at least have his pain managed, but if it doesn’t happen, I won’t leave. God gave me to Kevin and Kevin to me because he loved us so much. How could I walk away from that?
My husband also suffers from RSD. He found your blog and emailed it to me and I am in awe of everything that you have written and how close to home it is for us. He has suffered for the past 12 years from RSD and was just diagnosed in 2009, July to be exact. Thank you for making your thoughts public and letting others know that we are not alone.
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