Bipolar Depression II, does it ever get better?!

I am now 35 years old, and am relatively successful. I have a Masters Degree, a good job, a great wife, and two kids. Pretty much everything one would think one needs to be happy. I also have Bipolar II, with a big emphasis on the depressive side. Since I was six, I have always thought about taking my life, though they were more fantasies than anything. People without mental illness may not understand what the absolute impulse to take your life is like. Luckily I had the foresight to institutionalize myself before I could act on anything. I have been struggling with medications for years, seeing doctors, time in hospitals etc. and still the majority of times I am depressed, and I could probably count the days I have not thought about death since I was six on one hand. I am in treatment, and am taking Lithium (and many others), which does take away the impulse to take my life, but not the thought. Can anyone out there who either has Major Depressive Disorder, or Bipolar II tell me that life will get better? Is there any reprieve? Can someone with these disorders actually feel happy for an extended time, or is it more about living and surviving in a depressed state? Like I said in the beginning, I have everything others think would make them happy, and I regularly meet with my psychiatrist, and have tried very, very many drug combinations for treatment. Has anyone with these disorders been able to find extended happiness?