The Evolution of Marriage and A Kitten

We happily agreed to never have cats for 14 years, now we have a kitten. 

Admittedly she is a trial basis kitten but still... She's here and it's shocking. 

I think about how Jody and I got married almost flippantly, expecting our ground rules to never change because people hammer this thing into your head that people don't change. That's not actually true. Everyone changes. It seems like over time, the monotony and predictability became stale and unsatisfying to both of us. Jody got more hobbies. I got more friends. We still love each other like crazy but we are neither one the people we married and I say roll with it. Just live.

Saturday morning Jody strolled around the kitchen cradling the kitten like a baby and crooning like a star crossed lover to her...it's shocking. I stop and stare every time he tells me a funny kitten story. I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall but this tiny kitten is rapidly crumbling our reservations into a puddle. As Hazel carries her purring limp body around like a sack of potatoes I think to myself... How have we never had a cat? 

As Eden does homework with a kitten sprawled in her lap obviously relaxing every bit of stress from her... I think Eden has needed her for years.

As Kait parades her friends through the house to show them her kitten and begs us to keep her, I sit in wonderment at her first interest in an animal in her entire  11 years. 

And as Nick bounces into the car after a long day of school announcing that he has become a writing machine cranking out a half of a page and using vocabulary words to boot about this nameless cat I feel secure in the blessing we opened our hands to.