Feeling a Little Bit Richer.

Last night I typed a very long, detailed (and, in my opinion, witty) blog entry about the weekend that Dave and I just shared. Sadly, right when I got to the very end my son took hold of the mouse and clicked the back button. It was tragic, I actually screamed out loud because it was such a disaster. I would really like to share the story here, but I simply do not feel that I have the patience right now to write as well as I had last night. This makes me sad because it was a weekend that was deserving of a well written entry. But life happens so I am just going to make do and give it the best entry that my time constraints and patience will allow. Ready, set, go...

A couple of months ago a friend of mine mentioned that she and her husband were taking the Navy up on one of the perks that it offers to those who serve. The perk she told me about was called a CREDO (Chaplain's Religious Enrichment Development Operation) Marriage Enrichment Retreat. Dave and I are not religious and we also do not have any major problems with our marriage, but my friend told me that it was for healthy marriages and that it was not extremely focused on faith. My next thought was, "Nice idea and concept but Dave is an E3, no way can we afford that." The next words out of her mouth shot that thought down. She said, "The Navy pays for your hotel stay and all of your meals except dinner on Friday night before the first session starts."

After that conversation, I was pretty much sold. I just needed to decide what to do about childcare, ask the spouse if he would be interested in doing such a thing, and get over my irrational fears of both group therapy and public speaking. It was pretty much a piece of cake. Our friends who had told us about the retreat agreed to swap childcare with us for the occasion, so we will be watching their daughter for a weekend in April. Dave said that as long as it was not overly bible based he would love to go, and that was taken care of. Now all the was left was to overcome the irrational fears. That part was easy as a child free, all expense paid, weekend alone as a couple easily outweighed the possible cons of what the retreat sessions would actually entail.

With all of the arrangements made, we both began to look forward to the weekend. We were slightly skeptical about the actual Marriage Enrichment Retreat but we were willing to put up with a few boring, awkward sessions in order to have a romantic getaway. The Friday arrived when we were supposed to leave and leave we did. The traffic getting there was a nightmare and it took us almost four hours (although we made great time coming back), we arrived, checked in, grabbed some Taco Time, and steeled ourselves for what we thought was going to be our first group therapy type session. At 6:45 on Friday evening, we walked into that conference room feeling nervous and intimidated.

Luckily for us expectations and reality rarely ever line up. This was one of the occasions where they do not line up and it happens in positive way. We were pleasantly surprised with the outline that the Chaplain gave us for the weekend, his demeanor, and the content of the first session of the weekend. We were also pleased that he did not drag it on for hours and that he seemed to really enjoy his job. We left Friday night feeling very optimistic about the rest of the weekend.

I am not going to go into a bunch of details. Outlining the whole weekend would take up a lot of space and probably be boring for anyone besides myself. However what I will say is that we left that Inn with several ideas of things that we can and will be doing to make our relationship stronger and healthier. We are going to work on growing closer in areas that we were just always very independent in. We are going to work on making each other feel appreciated and loved as fully as possible. We both left with an extremely optimistic feeling about a marriage that we were both already optimistic about.

This past weekend was one of the best investments I have ever made in my life or my marriage, and it was free. We learned so much and we spoke to each other about things and in ways that we had recently been neglecting. We actually managed to have serious, interesting conversations that were about other things than children. It was miraculous. Anyone who ever has a similar opportunity should act on it, you will not regret it. As of right now, today, I think that CREDO changed our marriage for the best. I am excited about today, tomorrow, and the years to come. And let me just say, it's a wonderful feeling.