What a Life We Have Built

 

"This is Us" is a drama I recently finished watching, starring Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia and following (across multiple points in time) the lives of this married couple and their three children (one adopted). I found the show to be supremely well-written, well-acted, and well-produced. To say it left a mark in my heart is a severe understatement. I truly cherished following the ups and downs of the extended Pearson family.

Clearly, some of the emotional connection came from the similarities to the life Amy and I have built in the real world. The Pearsons dealt with the highs and lows of many of the same things we two have had to bear: adoption, race, special needs, loss, gain, trauma, healing, celebration, and grieving.

I've always been a forward-looking person. So I certainly had certain aspirations about what my future life would be like when I was younger. Our actual life has been messier and harder, sometimes to the point of breaking. It has also been more joyous, deeper, and special than I could've even imagined. 

I suspect the life ahead of us will bring more of the same. "What a life we have built" is something I tell Amy, both when something happy happens and also to help us survive whatever is the latest hard thing to hit us in the gut. 

By the way, if you have journeyed with us, I thank you deeply, for helping us bear the lows more lightly and helping us enjoy the highs more thoroughly. You too are part of the "us" we have made.