My WONDERFUL Husband...

For those of you who may not know me... Let me just state that I have the absolute

BEST HUSBAND ON EARTH!!!!!

That having been said... I'm sure you want to know why I feel this way. There is no way I can list all the reasons I think he is such a wonderful guy. The post would be way too long for any mere mortal to read in one sitting. (Not to mention the great things he does that are... Well... Unmentionable.) This is after all a G rated blog. (For the most part.) So I will attempt to give you a short list of the reasons my husband is so phenomenal.

Reason One:

He puts up with me.

If you are sitting there wondering what I mean by that, then you are one of those people who has never met me. I can be the most irrational person you have ever met. My brain and my heart are constantly fighting. I am manic depressive, which means one day I bounce off the walls and can't sleep because I am on such a natural high, and the next I bawl for an hour straight because I forgot to clean out the litter box and feel stupid. Imagine never ending PMS type mood swings. He takes this all in stride, and more often than not, knows just the perfect thing to say to make me feel better.

Reason Two:

He fell in love with my daughter first.

Darrell is not Samantha's biological father. We met Darrell a few months before Samantha's second birthday. I am not going to go into vivid detail about her paternal chromosome donor's departure, mainly because leaving was the best thing he ever did for us. Most of the people I brought to the house to meet Samantha had no idea how to interact with her. Especially guys. For some reason, the fact that she is disabled freaked people out. Most people would look at her, tell me she was cute, and promptly go sit on the opposite side of the room. Not Darrell. He walked in the door, took one look at her, and plopped down in the floor next to her. He spent the entire evening they first met talking to her and playing with her in my living room floor. A few months after that I asked him if he would be her Godfather. He didn't hesitate. I asked him to take some time and think about the responsibility of it before he gave me an answer, he didn't need the time. He already loved her like she was his own. It wasn't until four months later that he and I started seeing each other. He still jokes from time to time that he married me for my daughter.

Reason Three:

He doesn't try to "fix" me.

As mentioned in reason one, I can be a bit disfunctional from time to time. I KNOW this. I know when it is happening, I just can't seem to control it. I beat myself up relentlessly about my little episodes, and always have. The LAST thing I need when I am in the middle of a breakdown is someone telling me to get a grip, or deal with it, or what is wrong with you?! That doesn't do anything but aggravate the little angry voices in my head that are already telling me what an idiot I am. Darrell just calmly sits there until I stop talking, and then depending on the particular situation, says "I wish there was something I could do to help." or "I love you, and I'm sorry your having such a bad day." or just sits and holds me while I cry. And he never sounds condescending. Just supportive and genuine. I know there are times when he has to get frustrated with me, but he never takes it out on me. Its wonderful that I don't feel broken around him, even if I am a little cracked.

Reason Four:

He treats me as an equal.

This may sound like a "well..Duh!", but trust me, its a biggie. I am a full time mom. I do not bring any income into our household. So many men (and a disturbing number of women) out there think of full time moms as some sort of sub human creature, who is too stupid or lazy to get a "real" job. Raising children IS a real job. Most of the career women out in the world have no idea how easy their lives are. They look down on women who choose to stay home and raise their children, because in their minds it contributes nothing to society. Darrell knows better. He wants our kids to have a parent to call if something happens at school. He wants our children to know that they can't get away with becoming criminals, because Mom won't stand for it. He knows I want to raise our children with all the love and support I can offer, and he stands by that decision without acting like my job is worth less than his.

Reason Five:

He lets me run away.

With all the hard work that Darrell does to bring home a paycheck to support our family, he still finds time to watch the baby for a few hours some mornings so I can catch up a bit on my sleep. He watched BOTH kids by himself on Wednesday for three hours, so I could go walk the mall and hang out with my best friend. Thursday he watched Auron so Samantha and I could run away and have some much needed quality time together. He doesn't expect me to raise the kids alone. He helps whenever he can. That is truly a rare find in a guy.

These are just a very few of the reasons why I am so in love with my husband. I found a wonderful man, and even though I wondered at the time... He was SO worth the three year wait it took to convince him to keep me. I just had to brag!