Thinking as a 'We'

I am trying to learn how to adjust to the idea of being married so that by the time I get married (see countdown in side bar - yay!), I will be that much ahead of the game. One of the biggest challenges I am coming across is the whole thinking of 'me' now as a 'we.' It's so difficult to get my mind wrapped around the fact that my life is not my own. For example, I realized that I am particularly attached to my last name. I never thought I would be. I never thought I'd be that woman who refused to change her last name. I mean, after all, what does it mean to become one flesh with the man as the head (and the woman as the neck, of course!)? I always thought only angry feminists refused to change their names.

But, as I am faced with this immanent reality, I realized my name is part of who I am. I've never been anyone other than Edith Magdalene for 26 years! When I told my fiancé that I wanted to hyphenate my last name, he did not approve one bit. I guess it's a 'man thing' to give your name to your wife and children, to immortalize and to perpetuate it. I am coming to accept that I will change my name - though we've comprised that my PhD can be hyphenated. That's good with me.

But name changing is not the only challenge. It's laughable the things we are going through right now. As my fiancé slowly moves his possessions into my apartment, which in a few months will be 'ours,' (gulp! I am learning that I am territorial creature!) there's been a battle about whose furniture is better and why and what needs to be sold. Our friends just laugh at us, and eventually we laugh too. But the transition to a 'we' is real world thing, and it sure isn't easy. It makes me grateful for the Lord, who redeems all things and walks the way of our lives with us.