Let Me Count the Ways, Vol. 4 {Birthday Edition!}

What better time to add to this list of specific ways Jeff has shown his love to me than today on his 44th birthday?  It's clear that even though it's his birthday, I'm the one who's getting the gifts.  :)

(I introduce this series here, then add to it here and here.)

26. "When's the last time you had a mammogram?" Jeff asked me a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  I'm sure his question was prompted in part by the many mammogram-promoting billboards we saw sprinkled throughout Pennsylvania during our Thanksgiving trip to visit my brother David and his family; but even more so, his question was prompted by his love for me.  To know that he was aware of and concerned about my health made me feel cherished indeed!

27. After deciding to get an additional life insurance policy, he came home one evening and told me all about it.  What's more, he very patiently answered my questions--not only about this particular policy, but also about the rest of our financial arrangements.  Some people might be weirded out by having a "what should I do if you die?" talk, but it actually brought an abundance of peace to my heart and made me feel closer to him than ever.  I pray I won't need to act on that knowledge for a very long time to come, if ever; but what a relief to not feel so in the dark about things, in case something tragic would happen to him!  Besides that, I was IN AWE of all the detailed record-keeping he does, for our own family finances as well as the business finances.  His financial savvy and his way of organizing information blew me away, and I realized yet again: THIS IS LOVE.  I might show love by having a home-cooked meal ready when Jeff gets home from work and clean socks for him every morning, but Jeff shows his love through, not only the hard work he does to make the money our family needs to survive, but also the hours he's spent planning how to use it wisely.  I was reminded that WE ARE A TEAM.  The burdens I carry here at home are not necessarily more or less than the ones he carries; they're just different.  And when I am aware of how much he handles in the realm of business/bills/taxes/paperwork/investments/etc., my love and respect and gratitude for him soars!

28. I prefer white lights on Christmas trees; but for as far back as I can remember, we've always had colored lights because Jeff likes them best, and somehow he's brainwashed our kids into preferring colored, too!!  ;-)  I really didn't mind and had, in fact, gotten quite used to our colored lights.  But this year, completely out of the blue, on the day we got our Christmas tree, Jeff surprised me by suggesting that he run into town and buy some white lights so we could have them on our tree this year.  I thought that was a fabulous idea.  ;-)  I wouldn't have asked for us to make that switch this year; but now that we have white lights on the tree, I am enjoying them so much.  Really, so, so much!!!  :)

29. One of the things I most appreciate about Jeff is how I can bounce ideas off him and benefit from his input and how I can bring up areas in which I'm feeling like I don't know what to do and can then gain wisdom from his advice concerning those situations.  He has so many good ideas!  For example, this year I've been reading aloud a new-to-us book, The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder for our daily Advent reading; and a night or two ago, Josiah was complaining a little because he wished that he could just read the book himself because he could get through it faster and also because the younger kids were interrupting ALL THE TIME (it felt like).  While I shared his frustration about the frequent interruptions, I still felt like it was valuable for us to use that book as a read-aloud for the family and not something for him to race through on his own.  I was inclined to just put my foot down and say this was the way it was going to be, like it or not; but then Jeff calmly suggested that Josiah be the one to read aloud the section for that day.  Yes!  Why didn't I think of that?!  Involving Josiah in that way was the perfect solution to that situation, and I was so grateful to Jeff for thinking of that.  There are so many times when his fresh insight and wise thinking saves the day for us!  :)

On this day of celebrating 44 years since Jeff's birth, as well as on every other day, I thank God for the gift of a husband who loves me so devotedly, so skillfully, so sacrificially, so loyally, so completely!

~ Jeff, sweet baby Josiah, and I, in the summer of 2002, at a wedding Jeff officiated ~