My Valentine

We used to do everything together. We were inseparable, my Valentine and me. For the years before kids, we would go to the grocery store together. Take walks together. Go to movies and out to dinner together. Visit coffee shops and book stores together. ‘Together’ was our favorite way to be.

In the years since expanding our beautiful, chaotic family, we barely see each other. With the demands of hectic work and family schedules, we struggle to carve time out to enjoy each other. Life happens. Life is busy and messy. But when given the opportunity, ‘together’ is still our favorite way to be, and my Valentine is my favorite person in the world. I think that is something to be celebrated.

Twenty-seven years ago, my family moved into the house next door to Alex’s. He is a couple years older than me, so our paths didn’t cross very often in high school. My bedroom faced Alex’s, and every so often I would hear his (very) loud music and think huh, that’s funny. I like that band too! I listen to that music too! Once when I got up the nerve to actually talk to him, he pretty quickly shut me down and we went back to The Ignoring Phase.

1994-ish

 After I graduated from high school, I spent the summer working at Blockbuster Video. Alex worked there also. Once in a while we would chat. I noticed Alex brought books to work that he was reading, and they were books I liked. I kept seeing how many similarities we had, and he kind of crept into my heart. He was funny and kind. He was interesting. I could see he was good. Just a good person. And he had cute curly hair and amazing blue eyes.

I finally got Alex to take me to a movie- “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Since we lived next door to each other, I walked across the yard to let Alex drive us to our movie in his tiny blue car. He drove like a maniac (that hasn’t changed), and kept a quarter in his mouth for the toll (which was gross but oddly endearing), but somehow I fell in love with him anyway.

I was house sitting for family friends, so Alex and I stayed up all night after the movie, just talking. We just clicked. It was the most amazing feeling I’d ever felt. We talked and laughed. All night. I almost killed him because I didn’t know he was allergic to hazelnuts and made him try Nutella and he had an allergic reaction. Ah, young love. I went home the next day and told my Dad that talking to Alex was like talking to my best friend from childhood. He says now that he thought, “Uh oh. Here we go.”

We spent the next four years living in different states, going to school and trying to be together as much as possible. It was torture, being apart. Somehow our relationship survived, and we made some pretty cool memories along the way. And the rest is history…

2000

What’s so interesting is that I still like Alex. After having pretty torturous roommate experiences in college, I was convinced I was doomed to not like anyone that I would ever live with. Alex and I have spent the last 23 years being together as much as possible. And I still like him. Liking someone is different than loving them. You can love someone and truly hate being around him. So of course I love Alex, but it’s a gift to still like the person you love, after all that life has thrown at us over the past two decades.

While entrenched in the chaos of trying to help our twin micro-preemies survive, I read a statistic that said most marriages with multiples end in divorce, and if those multiples are preemies, you’d better just start packing your bags now. Because no marriage can survive that.

HA! Take THAT, stupid statistic! The only constant in my life, is my Valentine. Through absolutely every horror and struggle we’ve dealt with over the past 23 years, Alex is strength, love, steadfast perseverance. We have experienced things that most couples don’t ever even have to fathom. Four preemies, surgeries, illnesses, moves, job transitions, four kiddos with special needs…and through it all, he keeps stepping up. Every time I say I have a new thing we need to try for the kids because it may help them, no matter how quacky it sounds, Alex listens to me. He gives me a chance to explain to him why this new (sometimes crazy) idea could be one to improve our kiddos’ lives. He always supports me, even if he thinks I’ve gone bananas. He is reasonable and fair, and always wants to see his kids succeed, thrive, and grow.

There have been dark, low, horrible times, don’t get me wrong. Our life together is by no means perfect. There have been times (more times than two people should have to experience) when we have looked at each other over a NICU isolette with terror and raw panic in our eyes, afraid of losing our precious new baby. There has been unknown—where will we live, where will Alex work, can we make it on one salary, how will we take care of twins, how will we help our kids with their unique needs, how can we be advocates for FOUR kids, how will we maintain our relationship during all these years of sleep deprivation and total chaos…there are intense and powerful worries that we wake up to every single day. There are times when we are screaming and crying because we don’t know how we will survive the anger that spews from our children during their rages. There is disappointment and exhaustion when we put our kids’ special needs ahead of our own, again and again and again. There is stress about how to logistically get all the kids everything they need to be healthy and happy, when there are just two of us and so many needy little ones. There is the frustration and desperation when we see our children floundering at school with no effective help in sight. There is financial worry; we worry about how to take care of everything everyone needs on one salary. There are health scares. Trips to the ER. Illnesses. Late night fevers. Owies to kiss and bandaid. Cars and dishwashers that break, bills that have to be paid. An endless monotony of annoying life distractions.

Love isn't always magical and pretty. Sometimes love gets buried under the mountain of dirty, messy, gritty, sucky life stuff. But true love is always there, steady and sure, waiting to be dusted off to come back into the light. True love is helping your wife take a shower after her third C-section, because her organs started shutting down and she's in so much pain she can't breathe. True love is instinctively catching your son's vomit in your open hand while he hurls it out of his body at the speed of light. True love is sitting with your wife while she is wrenched with worry about the latest struggle a kid is having. True love is changing poopy diapers and being covered in spit up and not having slept more than 3 hours in two days. True love is taking your toddler twins on an outing so your wife can have a moment to rest. True love is letting your little girl paint your toenails fluorescent pink. True love is popping your teens' zits and squishing a Q-tip in 8 little ears because they love the sound of having their ears "cleaned." True love is searching for (and finding!) a job in the area because your kids are barely hanging on in the environment they know, and to move them would mean major setbacks. True love is making your wife a gourmet dinner after a hard day at work. True love shines through the mess of life, like a bud escaping the soil in spring. 

Despite the mess of our chaos, once in a while, we find each other again. We catch each other’s eye and, after all this time, can read each other’s thoughts. I know when Alex’s look says, “Can you believe this kid??” or “Help, I’m about to lose my mind!” or “Did you shower today?” Once in while we find time to be together, just us. And we are always amazed at how much we like being together. Even after all the chaos of the past twenty-three years. Even after all the worry that weighs us down every day. Even after the list of special needs and endless brainstorming about how to help our kids. Even after all the never-ending, soul-crushing, tear-producing stress of this life. Even after all that, Alex is my Valentine.

2015
You know what makes our marriage great? Respect. Love. Kindness. Hot chocolate doesn’t hurt, either. A couple weeks ago, I had had a very bad horrible terrible morning because of the stress of getting the kids out the door for school. I also was feeling like total crap physically. Alex had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment. I was sitting in my sewing room, working on a weighted blanket, when Alex came home to get ready for work. In his hand, he had a cup of Panera hot chocolate for me. He knows this is one of my favorite treats of all time. He thought about me, and went out of his way to do something sweet and unexpected for me. This is who I knew he was, twenty-three years ago. This is who he still is. This is why he is my Valentine.

The way Alex loves his kids is also why he is my Valentine. The way he can go from slogging through math homework with one kid who has a learning disability to looking for a Barbie shoe for another, to laughing over YouTube videos with one more, to taking yet another one to therapy…this man. He just keeps showing up, you know? I’m sorry to say it, but I hear about a lot of Daddies who just refuse to show up. They can’t or won’t be there for what their family needs. Not my Valentine. It’s hard, it’s stressful, it’s exhausting, much of the time life really stinks, but my Valentine keeps showing up for us, day in, day out. Even when he can’t take another millisecond of the chaos that is our life, he regroups, he rethinks, he figures out how to be here for all of us. Emotionally and physically. When I break, he is strong. When he falters, I’m here for him to lean on.

Recently one of the kids’ therapists said to me that most families would have been torn apart by the level of stress our family has. By the rage some of our kids display, by the turmoil and strain our family has to deal with on a daily basis. By the PTSD we surely all suffer from because of our bag of special needs. She said the fact that our family is still together, and so loving toward each other, is a huge testament to who we are.

Sometimes I don’t know how we’re still together—all the odds are stacked high against us. But then I remember who I am, and who Alex is, and then I know why “we” work. Because we respect each other, even in the toughest moments. Because we try to be kind. Because we forgive. Because we are committed to each other. Because we remember the little things that make the other person happy- like hot chocolate after a terrible morning. Because when all is said and done, when we are blessed enough to find a precious few moments of less stress, we like each other more than any other humans on Earth. And because we like each other, we strive to love each other more every day. My Valentine is my rock, my heart, my joy.

Here’s to my Valentine. I thought I loved you when I married you, but the last 23 years have given me endless chances to see how much more amazing you are than I thought all those years ago, and to see what true love looks like up close. If you can come through all that we have, and still genuinely like and love each other, that’s something that should be celebrated.

Happy Valentine’s Day, my Valentine.

xoxo