I Love You

I met my husband when we were in high school. It was my first day in a new school and I was in the office getting registered. I noticed him right away, standing outside the office with a group of his friends. I remember thinking that he was the cutest guy I had ever seen and wishing that he would look at me. Then he did. And he smiled and nodded in my direction. It made my knees go weak and I know I was blushing a very unattractive shade of pink. I just knew that a boy like him would have to have a girlfriend, but it didn't hurt to dream. When I started school, I would look for his face in the crowd. I just wanted to see him. I was just hoping that maybe he would smile that smile again, that smile that felt like he was smiling just for me.
I'll never forget the first time I spoke to him. He made me feel like I was the only one in the room. He just seemed to listen to everything I had to say. I was SO in love! I never imagined that he would ever feel the same about me.
On our wedding day, my sister-in-law told me something I will never forget. She said that on my first day of school her brother came home and told her that he had seen the girl that he was going to marry. She asked him what my name was and he didn't even know my name! He just knew that he was going to spend the next 148 years of his life making me smile the way I smiled at him that day in the office. I'm sure he got a good amount of teasing from his brother for making a comment like that. But he never seemed to care. We have been married for 9 years now. True to his words (so far), he has spent the last nine years making me smile and laugh, making me happier than I ever dreamed possible.
I remember when he was first diagnosed with Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia. I stood there beside him in the neurosurgeon's office-in tears. He was so calm and so strong. He didn't look the least bit worried. I, on the other hand, felt like my world was crashing in. The doctor said he needed brain surgery immediately. I fell apart right there in front of the doctor. But he didn't. He just placed his hand in mine and said, "let's do this. Everything will be okay." For the next 13 days, I cried and prayed, and made plans to send him in to surgery. I feared the worst and hoped for the best. There was not a second of those 13 days that I didn't live in fear of losing him. But he was strong and brave and not the least bit concerned about himself or the surgery. When I would sit there and fall apart all over again, he would simply place his hand in mine and say, "I promised you 148 years of smiles and sunshine and I may not be able to keep that promise, but I'm going to make it as close to 148 as God will allow me. Don't be planning my funeral just yet!" When I saw him after his surgery, he looked at me and said, "told ya I wasn't goin' anywhere!"
I'm not the kind of girl that cares much about material things. I don't care how big our house is, what kind of car we drive, or how big or small our income is. I don't need the finer things in life to make me happy. All it takes is a smile from him and my world feels perfectly complete. I never believed in soul mates until that morning, in the office of a new school, when that good-looking boy smiled at me and made me feel like I was the only person on the planet that mattered.
He tells me he loves me everyday. I can't walk out of the room without hearing "I love you" from him. He is constantly reminding me that he loves me. I never get tired of hearing it. I will NEVER get tired of hearing it. He calls me his princess and tells me every single day that I am beautiful and special. He calls me from work to tell me that he misses me and can't wait to come home. I call him "Rufus" and he laughs out loud and says, "darlin' you're crazy, but that's why I love you!" I love him too. I love him for giving me our 3 little girls. I love him for calling me princess. I love him for telling me I'm beautiful. I love him for promising me 148 years of smiles and sunshine and for the 9 years of smiles and sunshine that he's already given me.