Of Appreciation

Last night, when I began feeling sick around 5pm and was snug in bed by 9pm (calling my husband on his cell phone while he was in the other room to whine about my cold feet and having him come to my rescue with fuzzy socks so I wouldn't have to move), I recalled the last time I felt this bad.

We were newlyweds, really, only seven months married and celebrating our first Christmas together - in Venezuela.  While I was glad to visit the country he called home for eight years, it would appear the country was not as glad to see me and did, over the course of a week's time, quite the number on my body.  At the height of it all, I lay in bed all night, alternating between sleep and visits to rid my stomach of the offending intruders.  Where was my new-ish husband during all of this?  Right by my side - if I wasn't sleeping, neither was he.  He, instead, alternated between watching favorite movies from his pre-teen years (MIB, anyone?) and re-visiting Donkey Kong on his old Super Nintendo. 

By the time I saw the glimmer of the rising sun through the small square window in the corner, I could tell the sickness was finally ending - but this relationship?  It was going to last.  My man knows how to take care of his wife - even if his presence is all he can offer.

Last night I was thinking back to this moment, glad that I married him in the first place although also glad he didn't feel the need to sit right at my side this time.  I was more than happy to know he was still getting things done in the living room he both needed and wanted to accomplish on the computer.

And then this morning I realized just how much he still loves me (not that I'd questioned it at all).  The living room filled with toys I'd left behind at nine was completely restored to live-ability.  The basket of un-folded cloth diapers sat outside my son's door, un-folded no longer.  And when I opened my laptop?  An adorable hand-drawn flower with a special note from my media naranja was wedged between the screen and the keyboard.

I love that man.  And I know he loves me, too.