Today is the birthday of my favorite person in the whole wide world. Of course I love my children passionately and I really don’t rank those that I love on a scale, but my husband’s birthday is today and I can’t imagine someone on this planet that I love and need more. He is the foundation of this family, the steady presence in any storm (particularly the storm that follows childbirth) and he keeps us going and sustained and smiling and strong enough to tackle whatever we need to tackle at that very moment. Life has not been particularly easy around here for the last four weeks, nor were they very easy during the pregnancy, or other life changes, job changes, mood changes, etc. But this is a life and a family that manages to always find the balance once again, and to revel in the joys that this life has blessed us with, and he is the first to always find those joys and remind us of them. I have nothing to give him this year for his birthday. Nothing wrapped up in paper, no recipe ingredients stashed in the pantry, no reservations set for a dinner out. All we have to give him is ourselves, the other three of us – imperfect, somewhat trying, but always loving him to our very core. And the most wonderful thing about him is that those are enough. They are really enough.
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I did ask him what he wanted for his birthday a few days back and he joked “sleep”. I can’t give him that yet, but I can give him this shot of the (sometimes) sleeping beauty in our house. And I can give him the second shot – the one of his two girls, the things that he hoped for and prayed for and prepared for, for so many years. And for now, for this year, they are enough.
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We love you. Happy Birthday.
The best present ever. Thanks.
– Dad