For our anniversary we decided to travel to Rockford, IL and have a nice dinner and then go to a Rockford Ice Hogs game. The Rockford Ice Hogs are a minor league hockey team that are the farm team for the Chicago Blackhawks. During the time I lived in Rockford and became a fan of the Hogs and throughly enjoyed going to the games.
The game was awesome and it made me reflect on our last year in marriage, like any great hockey game will do :) The Hogs were playing the Peoria Rivermen and it was a game that the Hogs were expected to win. The score at the end of the 1st period was Hogs-0 Rivermen-3...ouch. I was bummed. It seemed hopeless. The Hogs pulled out a score in the 2nd period making the score 1-3 at the beginning of the 3rd period. Still it did not seem possible with the way that they were playing that a win was going to occur. Then something spectacular happened...the Hogs scored and just before the end of the final period they scored again! So the game went into overtime 3-3. In hockey the overtime rules are sudden death, whoever scores first wins. The time ran down and no scores were made so then it goes to a shoot out. The whole crowd was on their feet screaming and yelling, the energy was so uplifting. It took 9 rounds before the Hogs were declared the winners...and the crowd went wild. Even though the odds were against them and people like myself had almost given up, the Hogs pulled out the win!
This year has been tough in many ways. Not because of our relationship, but because of all the craziness that this world likes to throw. When your relationship is built with the knowledge that God is the strength it seems that no matter what the other team has scored, at the end there is victory. Everyday I am thankful that I married my best friend and I am so glad that we suit up for this game of life together.
