16 years of aWeSoMe

On Thursday evening, I was walking out of my boys’ basketball games when a friend texted me. I quickly typed my reply and hit send. As I looked down, I noticed my phone connection had suddenly died. “No service,” the phone said.
That was odd.
I drove home, assuming my service would be back in a few minutes. But hours later, it was still disconnected. I turned off the phone for the night and hoped that it would miraculously cure itself by morning.
I woke up on Friday around 5 a.m. to the sound of my husband leaving for work. I tried to will myself to life to at least tell him good-bye before he headed out into the cold darkness to catch his train to the city. I was able to wake myself enough to remember it was our anniversary, but not enough to put my feet on the cold floor.
An hour later, I went downstairs and saw a funny little gift sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. It was a small rectangle box wrapped in pink construction paper. Three pieces of pink yarn connected the box to the light fixture overhead. I know it was my husband’s attempt to be crafty (or something!) but it made me laugh because it looked like a booby trap. Would the box explode if I cut the wrong strand of yarn?
I wondered how he managed to find construction paper and yarn, both of which are pretty well hidden in bins my office, buy he couldn’t find wrapping paper, which is stored in a pretty noticeable spot in plain sight!
In my opinion, one should not open a gift unless in the presence of the giver. And since I have the curiosity of a 3-year-old, I knew this was going to be torture to walk past that gift all day, wondering what was inside. “It must be chocolate,” I told myself. What other gift would he leave for me to open when he wasn’t around?
I went back upstairs and distracted myself by turning on the phone. Still no service. I was playing with all of my settings and turning the thing back off and on when my sweet 11-year-old son came in the room.
“I think you should really open that gift on the table, Mom,” he instructed.
Well, if he insisted, then I would do it. The curiosity was going to kill me anyway. It HAD to be chocolate, I reasoned, because the only thing that would make me feel better about my phone not working is chocolate. It was only 6 a.m., but I already needed some chocolate!
The pink construction paper was wrapped tightly in tape so I had to get a knife to start cutting my way through. The box was so dense and heavy that I was thinking about what type of chocolate it could possibly be. Did he stack candy bars on top of each other to make it a perfect rectangle?
Once I cut through enough to see the white box inside, I had another funny thought. “My husband really has a lot of nerve wrapping chocolate in his old iPhone box. That might make a girl a little disappointed.”
Finally, my brain stopped thinking about chocolate for two seconds, and I figured out that this wasn’t his old iPhone box. This was a NEW iPhone box holding a NEW iPhone.
I immediately felt so overwhelmed by how wonderful my husband is. He knows that buying me a gift from the Apple store is the equivalent to how many women feel about getting something from the jewelry store. But it hadn’t even occurred to me to WANT a new iPhone.
Yeah… I mean my old one had a ton of problems. The volume would mysteriously turn itself all the way up at random times, blasting my eardrums. My notifications didn’t work. It would rarely beep or make any sound when I got a phone call, text or any other message. I guess I didn’t really have time to think about getting a new one. So, I wouldn’t allow myself to go on the Apple web site to learn about the latest products or their features. Way too tempting for me.
I wanted to scream. I was so happy!
How could he know what gift I wanted before I even knew how much I wanted it?
I guess that’s what 16 years together does. My joy at that moment wasn’t just about the phone. I couldn’t believe I could be so blessed to be married to someone so thoughtful, kind, caring and observant. (Oh, not to mention, handsome, talented, funny and just generally wonderful!)
He is the one person in this world who really knows me. Sometimes, I think he knows me better than I know myself. I can’t even imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn’t found him. I’m so thankful for the amazing gift of my husband. Happy anniversary, babe!
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Oh, so… want to read our story? It’s always fun to remember how this whole thing started: The beginning of us.