Vow is he great

Whew, I finally feel like just a normal sick person rather than a person who was about to go over the edge as I was earlier this week. In case you wanted to know, being eight months pregnant and having tonsillitis is not a great combination. I never want to go into gross personal details about being pregnant so I'll just leave it that between carrying the baby, changes in my body because of the pregnancy and a virus trying to beat my body, I was feeling beyond awful. On New Year's Eve Kyle tried to make me feel better and said, "Just think, you will feel much better in 2009." He seemed to have forgotten that early in 2009 I first have to give birth to a child! The only good thing about being this sick is that I have been so out of it mentally that I haven't had time to worry about the birth.


My sister believes that when you are fighting a cold you should wear a hat to help you heal. I was so sick I decided to throw on a scarf too just for good measure. Between the black hat and scarf, combined with my gray pajamas over my pregnant belly I really did look like Frosty the Snowman.


Throughout all of this, Kyle has been an absolute saint in taking care of me. For the past six days I have only been out of the house twice and both times were to go to the doctor. For the rest of the time I was either on the couch or in bed. Monday and Tuesday it hurt so much to talk that I was actually just snapping, clapping, and miming to get his attention and explain what I needed. During those few times I was thinking clearly I thought about how much he was fulfilling all of our marriage vows. I think when most people say their vows they mean what they are saying, but they don't actually know what they meaning. And of course I don't think you really understand what the vows mean until you are in a tough situation. Kyle and I have only been married four and half years so I have a feeling we have yet to experience the true meaning of each of them either. But in the last few days I got a glimpse of Kyle's fulfillment of some them and I feel confident in our future!

To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

I look back and often wonder how I was so lucky to make such a great decision to marry Kyle. I have my parents to thank for raising me to make good decisions, but I also know that love blinds a lot of people. In all honesty, the permanence and longevity of chosing a spouse still overwhelms me, even when I know my decision has already been made! However, I do think past behavior is a very good indicator and it often seems that if people had just looked more closely at their spouses behavior patterns then they might have seen the writing on the wall.

My mom always said "Date lots of people and then marry your best friend." I knew she had good advice but all through college I kept looking at my guy friends and thinking, "Would I ever want to marry him? No." It wasn't until I was distracted by lots of other stuff that I finally forgot to stop looking at my guy friends and lo and behold then Kyle and I became best friends. We spent a year just being good friends and during that time there were lots of situations where I got to see the real Kyle. Although I wasn't thinking it at the time, in hindsight, I was seeing the exact same wonderful traits he has brought into our marriage and why he is such a wonderful husband.
--I think of when the Arch Society group was hanging out at Palmer's mountain house. Everyone else was in the den goofing off and I came into the kitchen to find Kyle doing the dishes just because they needed to be done.
--After that same retreat everyone else headed home and Kyle stayed behind with me to clean out the vans so I wouldn't be left to do it myself and he wanted to make sure we returned them back the way we found them.
--Kyle was the chairman of the Arch Society. The chairman of the previous year had committed the group to several very unpopular assignments that took place during the football games. Kyle bore the brunt of people's unhappiness, even though it hadn't been his decision. I still remember sitting at Gyro Wrap on Broad Street when he explained to me that the group had made a committment and although everyone hated the assignments, we couldn't quit in the middle of the season. We needed to re-evaluate for the next year but in the meantime, we needed to see the committment out for that season.

And just so you don't think I was some atypical girl that was only attracted to good guys, I have one more memory that is yet another example of how thoughtful Kyle is, but at the time it actually made him less attractive in my eyes. Why is it that girls are attracted to the 'bad boys' yet it is the good guys that are the much better ones for the long haul of life? At the time, Kyle and I were still just friends but I knew he liked me. He had asked me to go to a bbq dinner/fundraiser that ADII was having one night. It was pouring buckets and buckets of rain that evening. Once we were in the car, he mentioned that he had stopped to buy an umbrella for us on his way over to pick me up so that we wouldn't get quite as wet. Now if anything, that should have shown me about how great he was to be thoughtful, prepared and to think ahead. But I remember at the time being annoyed that he was just so darn thoughtful and prepared and thought ahead.

So I guess the bottom line of this is that you can look at past behavior to see what the future holds, but you need God to take the lead because sometimes girls will just be stupid girls and not appreciate the qualities that make a wonderful husband.