Adoption Paperwork and Memories

Our adoption paperwork/process is set up into five sections. We finished sections 1 and 2 fairly quickly and started on section 3. Section 3 is made up of paperwork (again) and some online forms that ask about family and background, etc. We finished the paperwork portion and started on the online stuff two weeks ago. Some of the questions are very straight forward and some take some definite thought.

We finished the online portion today. It was interesting to think about the answers and reminisce about times past. One of the questions was something about sharing any special experiences or memories. Of course our temple marriage was at the top of the list. After almost 13 years of marriage, how do you pick a few experiences and memories of the many we have had?! We each finished our sections and started talking about some of our memories. One that Robert reminded me of goes as follows:

We were on the third day of our honeymoon and decided to go canoeing. Since we were renting a house on a private beach, the river that we were going to canoe on lead to the ocean. So we rented the canoe and started out. The current was strongly pushing us out to the ocean and we paddled upriver. Robert is more adventurous and wanted to paddle in the middle of the river so we could have a better view of the fish, shores and what was ahead. I am less adventurous and wanted to be near the beach, so I could jump out and grab sand if something went wrong! And, I don't like to be on or in water that I cannot see the bottom. So, we are canoeing, Robert in front and me behind. He kept paddling out to the middle and I would paddle back to shore. We spent the whole trip up river doing zig-zags to the shore and back to the middle, to the shore and back.

As in an marriage, it take some time to get used to your partner and their idiosyncrasies. It also takes some time to find the middle ground and compromise. We stopped at our destination, drew hearts in the sand and took some pictures of each of us near our heart that said "I love you!". After finding our middle ground, the canoe ride back was much less work and much more fun.

That was one of our first experiences learning about compromise and working together as a married couple, we have a lot more! So again I ask, 'how do you pick a few experiences to share when you have SO many to choose from?!'