Am I Old Enough to be 28?!

Today is my 28^th birthday.  I don’t feel like I’m old enough to be 28.  I sometimes have to do a double-take at my life. I moved away from my hometown, I live in a house that my husband and I own, I’m entrusted with responsibilities at work that sometimes floor me, I’m responsible for keeping another living thing alive (our dog, Ted) and I have to do my own taxes for crying out loud.  But when I planned for my future when I was younger I had so many different things in mind than what life has actually brought me.  I thought I had nailed down what I wanted to be when I grew up, that I would be working in a medical profession, I would be married with at least one if not two kids by now, I would be living in some really cool city, I would be wildly successful.

What’s that saying? If you want to make God laugh, tell him YOUR plans.  Yeah, He must think I’m hilarious.  

I’m 28 and I honestly have no clue what I want to be when I grow up.  But maybe that’s ok.  I am still able to dream of all the possibilities, I’m not locked into a profession that I paid tens of thousands of dollars to be qualified for.  Maybe one day I’ll be a writer, or I’ll travel the craft show circuit, or I’ll invent something, or I’ll join the WWE…the book is still wide open.

I’m 28 and the hubby and I don’t have any kids other than one ridiculously adorable fur baby named Teddy.  We imagined we would have had kids by now, but maybe that’s ok.  We have walked through the struggles of infertility together and I believe we will come out stronger on the other side.  If we weren’t walking this road I would have never known how comforting his presence can be during a painful procedure or after getting disappointing news again…and again.  I wouldn’t know what it’s like to long for something so badly and know that there is someone else who feels exactly the same way.  Someone who knows how excited you are for others when they announce a pregnancy but also knows the heartache that comes with it. I wouldn’t have met the kind and compassionate people that work at our clinic, and I wouldn’t have heard from so many women, ones I know and ones I don’t, who are walking the same road as us and the ones that have come out successful and give me hope that one day we will too.  We have family that loves us more than we can imagine and right now that is enough.

I’m 28 and I don’t live in some really awesome, exciting, busy city.  I live in a small town in North Dakota with one stoplight.  We have 3 bars, 5 churches, and a Subway.  There honestly isn’t that much to do.  But maybe that’s ok, too.  Because when there aren’t a lot of places to go and things to do it gives a person the ability to spend a lot of time with friends.  And some of the friends we have made in this tiny North Dakota town are better than many you would find in some big fancy city.  Friends that will help you fix the lawn mower when your husband is gone and you don’t have a clue, friends that don’t hesitate to loan you their ladder and aren’t concerned about when it will be returned.  Or friends who aren’t alarmed when you just walk into their house unannounced, friends you’ll always see at the school events and games, friends that you know will always be at Wednesday night ‘ coffee’ even if you haven’t spoken with them all week.  Friends that will sit with you during hard times and ones that will celebrate BIG with you during the good times. Friends that you know you’ll spend weekends at the lake with, New Years with, Bison football games with, random celebrations and Cinco de Mayo with, and practically every Friday night after a hometown football game.

I’m 28 and I haven’t lost the ability to dream of what the future may hold, something not everyone can say.  I have a husband who loves me and is there for me, something not everyone can say.  We have a family that loves and supports us and some of the best people we are fortunate enough to call our friends, something that many people cannot say. Maybe ‘wildly successful’ means something completely different now at 28 than what I thought it did when I was 18.   If I’m able to say these things that so many people can’t maybe, just maybe, I’m more successful than I could have ever imagined.

So to all of you who have loved on me for my birthday, THANK YOU!  I feel incredibly fortunate to call you friends and know that I love you, too!