Sure do love him...

The other day, while at work, a young (22, I think) co-worker came up beside me to get some drinks and said, "Your husband sounds pretty perfect.  Can we just clone him?"  I was caught a little off guard because I couldn't remember saying anything to her recently.  I initially thought, by the way she said it, that I had been bragging.  This girl has been in an on/off relationship with the father of her baby for years.  From what I've gathered, he's pretty worthless and she knows it.  Anyway, I stood there for a minute trying to remember if I had just said something about him.  Then I finally said, "Why?  What did I say about him?"  She said, "Well, you just never complain about him so he must be a pretty good guy."

Then, today at the gym day care, one of the other mom's that I volunteer with was talking about her husband coming home to a messy house and basically saying, "What did you do all day?"  Another mom and I got talking about our husbands, who sound pretty similar to eachother.  Derek might say something like that to me as a joke, but never seriously.  He would know that something like that would only make things worse.  I think he would generally know that if the house were that bad, it must have been a rough day.  He would know that I would turn inside out if he said something like that.  He knows that I am... sensitive to those kinds of things.  I try hard to keep the house up, care for the kids, cook meals, etc., etc.  Saying something like that would be a big blow to me.  Anyway, this other mom and I continued to talk and she was telling me a little bit about her first marriage - an abusive marriage she had to escape and take her three children away from.  I was so shocked to hear her stories and had so much respect for her because I realize that couldn't have been easy to get out of.

I know Derek is a great guy.  He has his imperfections but he is perfect for me.  He knows me.  He gets me.  Sometimes I don't realize how great we have it until someone like my co-worker says something like that or I hear horror stories of what other women have gone through and can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like because I've never even come close to going through anything like it.  I really am lucky.  Well, I think part of it is luck and part of it is choice.  I think that if I hadn't have married Derek, I very easily could've been in an unhealthy relationship.  I'm so thankful that I got away from that unhealthy relationship and chose Derek... and he chose me.

By the way, I think there's something to be said about the father that showed him what is to be a kind, loving husband and father.  He was blessed to have such a great example.  I'm confident that he is doing the very same thing right now for our kids.