The Hatter family

Today my sweet husband turns 34 years old.  I want his day to be special, since he doesn't get celebrated that much at all.  Case in point, our four year anniversary was spent in the hospital, where he had to try and get comfortable on a blue vinyl chair while listening to me beg the nurse for more pain meds.  Not exactly anyone's idea of a romantic anniversary celebration.
He is pretty amazing.  If you don't know him, you are missing out.   He is the best person I know, and MORE of everything than me.  More patient, more loyal, more forgiving, more determined, more hardworking...he's kinder, nicer, smarter, funnier than anyone I know.  He does the "right" thing, and not just because he knows it looks good to live that way, but because it was hardwired into him (even when he was a fetus) to make the right choice no matter what.  He loves people when they don't deserve it, and is the same way about forgiveness.  Lucky for me, because frankly, I'm a mess.  I am emotional, irrational and have anger problems.  I cry too much, I can be mean, and I pout.....the list goes on an on!  I'm sure he has noticed all these faults of mine, but you wouldn't know it by the way he treats me.  He still acts like I am the funniest, best, most wonderful person alive....and that humbles me.  I'm not sure what I expected marriage to be like when I said "I do" four years ago.  I was excited about having wedding showers and registering for new dishes and towels.  I was excited to be able to change my name to match his, and to monogram that new name on the aforementioned new towels.  I was excited to get to "play house" with him....but it's really so much more than that.  I live with my friend.  My very best friend, who thinks the same things are funny that I do....who I share so many inside jokes with, and have a language with that other people wouldn't even begin to understand...a language built on sixteen years of knowing each other. A language that is filled with words that aren't even words at all.  Often times, we can say just one thing to each other, and we know EXACTLY what the other person is referencing or saying about a certain situation....When I give him "a look" across a room, he knows EXACTLY why I'm shooting the look.  He knows if I am trying to get his attention, or if I'm annoyed about something, or find something funny.  We are entertained, repulsed, convicted about all the same issues.  I like that kind of comfort.  The best thing about being with him, (other than the fact that he has more character and integrity in his little toenail than most people do in their whole being) is the fact that he Will. Never. Leave.  I took this to be true when I married him, but I know now, with total certainty that he is going to stick with me for the long haul.  Because that's the kind of person he is.  And that is were I find the most comfort of all....because I know there is nothing more important to him than me and our three little ones.  I know that if it came down to choosing his life or ours, he'd give his in a minute for us, no hesitation/no questions asked.  My life is comfortable and easy, and it's because he makes it that way.....I never have to worry about anything, because he provides for us.   I am a better person for knowing him.  He makes me want to be a better mother, friend, wife.....I just hope I can continue to do whatever I did that made him want to marry me in the first place.
Today I celebrate a boy I met sixteen years ago.....who; even THEN was kinder and more mature than other boys his age.  A boy who met my GRANDPARENTS the first time he came to my house (how's that for pressure?)....someone who was never, EVER afraid to tell me how he felt.  A boy who loved me for years and years, even though I didn't necessarily deserve it or love him back at the time.  A boy who KNEW he always wanted to marry me, and waited patiently for me to figure out the same.  He comforted me when my dog died, and when my dad was having a heart attack.   Somewhere along the line, he turned into the man that I am married to today.....with the same kindness and conviction he had even as a teenager.....only multiplied by a billion today.  He is the man who had a hysterical laughing fit during our wedding vows.  He comforted me when I melted down over realizing I wasn't pregnant yet AGAIN, and reassured me that I would definitely become a mother someday.  He laughed with me about things other people wouldn't find that funny at all.   He thinks it is funny to ask loudly in the grocery store if I remembered to get my diahrrea medication.  He is the person who cried with me when we heard our newborn babies cry for the first time. He held a trash can for me the night after we had our twins, and my pain was so horrible it made me barf.  He is the person who never balks at helping out at home, no matter how many hours he has worked that day.  He even laughed at me when I got mad and threw a remote control at him in the middle of an argument. (I told you I had issues.)  He is the only person who knows the all consuming, crippling love I have for my children, because they are his too.  He's not perfect....he whistles too much, his feet are entirely too cold, and he leaves papers all over the whole house.  He can be a pest sometimes and he watches WAY too many "good games" on TV.....but I don't mind.  He puts up with me after all, and for THAT he deserves some kind of award....
Happy, happy birthday to him!  I hope that on this day, (and all the other ones too) he knows how much he is loved and needed!