“Dear husband, There’s a life in the future with little faces in photo frames instead of before our eyes. Artwork and ABC magnets won’t adorn our fridge, and these leggings I’m wearing right now will be long gone.

There’s a big enough bed that our elbows and knees won’t poke us in the night and only our feet will swing out in the morning. Because there aren’t any, a vase is placed within reach of little arms, and mugs will daringly sit on the table’s edge. There’s a somewhat more forgiving bank balance, a bag I’m leaving with that isn’t overflowing, and it’ll only take us 10 seconds to get from the door to the car!

There’s time on the schedule that isn’t filled with swimming lessons, dance courses, or dirty athletic shoes. And for the third time, we’ll get to know each other, first before them, then with them, and finally when only two jackets hang at the entrance. The car is spotless, and the only sound is the buzz of the engine.

There will be no endless questions in high-pitched voices from the back seat, there may even be days we don’t hear from them at all.There’s a date night with no curfew, my mom’s not needed for babysitting, and we aren’t sleeping with one eye open waiting for the shuffle of feet down the hallway.

A type of freedom that feels heavy. There’s a house that’s clean, maybe our couch is new, and we aren’t stepping on Lego or toy cars either. In fact, there’s not much color anywhere, remember how we hated all the colors? Remember how it came with so much happiness?There’s a dinner table that feels big, we aren’t negotiating bites of vegetables or wiping little hands and mouths.

But sometimes there’s a knock on the door and the table is full once more. There’s a shower that doesn’t sound like baby cries, a coffee that is warm, and my body will be my own. We won’t wear tired the same way but time will have aged us anyway. There will be hard moments to come that will make these moments look easy, but we’ll remember.

We’ll remember the first words, the curls, the ‘I love you’s’ the moments we almost broke, and how we held each other through it. We’ll laugh and we’ll cry just like we did then. There’s a life in the future and it’s coming for us every day. So let’s get swept up in the beautiful chaos in front of us.

Let’s make the future wait a little longer. Because I love this life with you so much, this one right now.”