What is Valentine’s Day without all the other days?
I love extravagance just as much as the next hopeless romantic. Even if I knew the number of times I have watched The Notebook, I wouldn’t tell because I’m certain it’s an embarrassing number. We spent a ridiculous amount of hours DIYing our wedding because my romantic ideas far surpassed our budget. My favorite color is pink and favorite flower is antique roses. I am truly a hopeless romantic. I cry happy tears over movies that aren’t even romance-themed.
This morning though, when I was lying in bed at 1 a.m., I was whispering the words I have so many times before over my sleeping husband, “Thank you God for this man,” and just like all the times before, it wasn’t storybook romantic moments that were flooding my mind. Yes, he brought home chocolate yesterday. Yes, he brought home a little rose bush for my garden. I’m grateful for those, and it meant a lot to me that he remembered the times a few months ago when I said I wanted a rose bush. Those things aren’t what had my heart fluttering while I watched him sleep though.
It was when he opened a bag and handed heart-shaped boxes of candy to each of our kids – even the baby.
It was when he held me when I cried.
It was knowing he went to bed exhausted, hoping his phone wouldn’t ring with a call from work before morning.
It was that he was getting up to go to work in a few hours, on a Saturday – because they needed him to, not because he wanted to.
It was when he suggested we volunteer to babysit at church since he would be on-call on Valentine’s Day.
Those moments are so special. That’s what makes Valentine’s Day even worth celebrating with him.
Every once in a while my husband does really surprise me, catch me off guard with a big gift or really sweet gesture that makes me feel like a princess for a bit. But those wouldn’t mean anything at all without the day in and day out, everyday love in-between.
Valentine’s Day is fun. It’s a day like any other though, and it has the possibility to go 100 different ways. If this one is perfect, that’s really great and a fun memory. If it isn’t perfect – the babysitter cancels, he has to work, the kids cry and fight all day, the dog throws up in the one room of your house with carpet, and/or you burn the cookies…and the steaks. Even if he waits until the last minute and runs out of time to even buy a card for you – it’s still one more day that he’s yours and you are his.
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…
