Today was a special day in our house. My Justin is 32 today. He is 2 months younger than me, and he never lets me forget it :) I could write about how cute the kids were last night begging me to wake them up early so they could make breakfast. Or how adorable Jere's little scribbles were on their homemade banner. But I want to say more than that. Today, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Jesus, for partnering me with this incredible guy. Thank you, Justin, for being such a happy place for me.
You may not want to hear all of the great things I have to say about my hubbs. But if you're going to understand me, and this journey, and how I'm handling it, then you have to understand my relationship with my very best friend in the whole world. I thought today would be a great day to let you in on
US.
Justin is hilarious. He breaks out into wild fits of laughter over the silliest things. I love to laugh. He is so fun and corny and full of puns. I mean, FULL, I've never known anyone to be so quick with them. It stands to be one of his best and worst qualities, as it seems to be pretty constant, even when I want to be serious. He is so predictable, but never boring. He has sort of a 'why-mess-with-a-good-thing?' attitude about most things. He buys the same shirt in 5 colors, wears one cut of jeans, and will prefer vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce till the day he dies. But he is always on a mission to surprise me, with gifts that blow my mind, things that I'd never expect. It goes to his predictability because I know he will always go above and beyond. In contrast, unless I make it myself, I'm awful at giving gifts. Just awful. When it comes to stress, he is stellar. He has an uncanny ability to walk out of his work environment and sink right into family life without letting it bleed over. It's a trait I've always been envious of, and more and more I am crazy thankful for it. My only fault with his stress handling tendencies is that he is so protective of me, to the point of keeping me in the dark of things sometimes. It's awesome, and not awesome- equal parts. He is a fantastic dad- modeling too much greatness for my boys for me to even list it here. But I can say without hesitation that I'd love for all three of them to be just like him when they grow up. In so many ways we are exact opposites, but just in all the right ways. He is firm where I'm soft and gentle where I'm harsh. He nudges when I need to be pushed, and is always able to reel me back in when I've gotten off track. My favorite thing: he always tells me what I need to hear, and rarely, I mean RARELY goes for what I
want to hear. That is priceless and amazing in a partner. There are people who come into your life and change everything. They love you, in spite of you, and that changes you. Justin is such a sweet expression of Father's love for me. He is literally re-presenting Jesus to me on a daily basis. It doesn't get more real than that. I will love him till I die.
Happy Birthday, Jus. You are my very favorite. My best friend forever.