So uh, hey, guess what?

I’m getting married.

No, I’m not kidding.

You know, for a guy who thought he’d *never* marry and never have kids, I’ve done a lot of those things so far. I mean, sure, the first time there was no ceremony or anything, but we were as good as married and we had kids, and now...

I’m doing it again. But this time for real.

The wonderful politika and I are going to get hitched.

Sorry, I just have to keep repeating it so that it sinks in.

The lovely politika and I are going to get hitched. :-)

This has been on my mind for a while now. We had talked on and off about it, and poli had made it clear a while ago how she felt. But I needed time. I took that time, and thought a lot about it, and how it would change my life and the kids’ lives.

We talked. About our plans, about kids, about my kids, about our future, and I gradually began to be not so frightened of the idea.

Don’t get me wrong -- it still scares the crap outta me. I don’t think there was any way around that, because I always agonize over even the most irrelevant decisions (like last night’s “Do I refrigerate this fudge right away before it cools down, or do I wait until morning??? Oh My Gawd, what am I supposed to do???”). But the thing is, I love her and she makes me happy. We make each other happy. She makes the kids happy, and they her. I can’t picture life without her.

So we’re getting married.

But there was one thing that had to be taken care of before we made if official: The kids.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to ask *them* first if it was OK, because without their approval there was no way I could go ahead with it. But I just couldn’t figure out a way.

I thought of earnestly asking them how they’d feel about the idea and whether or not they’d be OK with it, then surprising poli with a private proposal.

I thought of asking them to help me write a “Will you marry us?” booklet, complete with pictures and a storyline.

I tried thinking of other things, but nothing felt right.

Finally, in a conversation by the glow of the xmas tree lights Friday night, after the kids had gone to bed, I told poli how I felt. I told her the need to get the kids’ approval before anything else, and true-to-form, she explained how to do it.

“Why don’t we just sit down with them and tell them this is what we’re thinking of doing and ask them how they feel about it.”

Duh. Of course that was it. We would ask them together. And that’s what we did, the next day. Eldest grinned maniacally and bounced up and down in her seat, while littlest beamed and said “I thought of it first” (last year she asked when we were going to get married) and then said “Does this mean you’re having a baby???”. Man, I think she would’ve burst if we had given her that kind of news too.

Anyway, once we had the seal of approval from the kids, we were free to tell. We told my parents, who came into town for lunch. They were ecstatic. Then we told poli’s mom, who gave a standoffish congratulations and now seems to be avoiding the issue altogether, and we told poli’s dad and our siblings, who all gave heartfelt congratulations.

Oh boy. Things are just getting started aren’t they? *grin*

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