Reflections on the Lovliness of Romance

Margaret did a fantastic job with the Valentine's installment of the Living Lives of Loveliness Fair. I hadn't intended to write anything about love or romance but after reading all of the posts, I had so many thoughts about my own romance with my husband that I thought I would write out some of them.

Sometime within the last couple weeks marked quite a milestone in our relationship. We have now been married longer than we knew each other before we got married. In case you were wondering, we will celebrate our fourth anniversary in May. In some ways I can't believe we have been married this long and in other ways it seems like yesterday that we took our vows. Overall, I think that our pre-married togetherness seems much longer than our married togetherness simply because we were not married.

My husband may not do things like randomly buy me jewelry and chocolates, but he shows he loves me in much more important ways. He has been there for me in my darkest hour when I needed him most. He does the laundry and takes out the trash without complaining. He works two jobs and is a full time student so he can provide for the needs (and a reasonable amount of wants) for our family. He is patient with and supportive about my pregnancy problems (and hormones). He is a loving father who will pretend he is a horse or read several stories in a row to please a rambunctious toddler.

He has never done anything for Valentine's Day before and I don't expect him to because he does so much more. Maybe that is why it means so much more that he ordered an expensive box of chocolates for me this year and then bought me some roses. He knew it wasn't expected, so he wanted to surprise me. And he surprised me not once, but twice. He's my husband and I love him.