We moved in September of 2006. Three years later, we were married. The time in between was a trial, testing compatibility mode features and the necessity to work through the issues with the people we were to become—the people we needed to be. Fixing bugs, system crashes, conflicts, malware, spyware, and so on.

I can see it was a stressful time, and to look at us now, I can tell you two things.
1. It helped make us the people we needed to be.
2. It was worth it. I wouldn’t trade my wife for anything.

When we moved back, there was a sufficient amount of resentment from both of us. She went to work first, on a graveyard shift, while I got to stay home with our firstborn. I regret that to some extent now because there is a certain relationship that I have with him that she doesn’t. However, that changes for our second-born, where she spent more time with him at the same stage, and their relationship is stronger. We’ll get there.

There were friends who didn’t really see our relationship and tried to judge situations they didn’t understand, attempting to ruin it. This wasn’t the first time either. Before we left California, another person I thought was a friend tried to portray me as a bad person without reason or justification.

I have no problems admitting that I have made mistakes in this relationship. We both have. We have grown better at dealing with them, accepting responsibility, and apologizing. There were times when I took her for granted, and she took me for granted. We worked through that, and where we are now feels much stronger. Other individual factors contributed as well. That’s not to say we are perfect now and while things have their ups and downs it doesn’t change that our bond is stronger than it was back then.

My unemployment at this time lasted about 5 months. A large problem was the amount of money made, which was not enough to continue paying for the Sunfire I had purchased years prior. They thought we were running with the car and started harassing family in other states, so I voluntarily relinquished it. I miss the car, even to this day, even if I like the car I have now.

It felt at times like we were drowning. This increased the frustration and resentment. However, with the child being born, the tax returns from 2006 were substantially more than we were used to. So a deal was made. We took a flight to my home with our tax returns, so the family there could meet our child. Upon return, I would get a job as soon as possible, which ended up supporting the most popular systems of one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world.

This was my element again.