A Heart as Wide as the Sea

My wife has had a rough week. Nothing particularly awful has happened but the weight of being a working mom has just been a little bit heavier this week than it usually is. It's the end of the school year and the freedom of summer is close enough to taste but still far enough away to break your heart if you think about it too much. Monday night she didn't get home until after 9... Tuesday night it was around 8 but I had to leave at 8:30 to go play tennis with some friends. Then last night I had band rehearsal and didn't get home until around 9:30. The crazy schedule and the lack of being together has led to this being a really tiring week.

I tell you that so I can tell you this.... last night when I got home, Jessica and Connor were just getting home too. They had been to Walmart to pick up a few things. I took the dogs outside and then checked email and came in the kitchen and she had strawberries out all over the counter and a big thing of melted chocolate going. I asked what was up and she said we were making chocolate covered strawberries for Connor's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Sometimes in an unexpected moment, the love you have for a person just snaps into perfect focus and all the reasons you love them come at you all at once. Here was someone who was in a bad mood, exhausted, and probably wanted nothing more than to just go to bed. Instead of doing just that, here she was making chocolate covered strawberries at 10:00 at night. I'm pretty sure Teachers Appreciation Week isn't a well known event (did you know this was it?) and I know for sure that Connor's teachers would have been happy with just a card or a cheap little box of chocolates or something. But that's not how Jessica is wired. When it comes to giving and letting people know they are appreciated, she goes all out all the time.

I stood there for a minute watching her work... letting Connor taste the chocolate, meticulously arranging the strawberries on skewer sticks into a pretty arrangement, telling Connor not to lick all the chocolate off of the strawberries... and for just a moment, it all became clear. I'm so fortunate to be married to such an amazing mom, such a beautiful woman, and such an amazing person with a heart as wide as the sea.

Comments

[Betsy]

let's hope no guys get a hold of this post and ruin your sweet moment with your family :)

[jeph]

Chocolate gives me the runs.

[Jeff]

Geez - you sound like you just returned from a marriage retreat or something...

[Sarah]

Can you talk to Andrew about him starting a blog...I think this would be great inspiration for his first post.

[moma]

AMEN!!!!