I Love You Wherever You Are...

I am naturally a thoughtful person, I like to buy gifts for other people, and I think it's incredibly important to let those you love know you love them.  Whether it's close friends or my sweet husband, I love to know that I can make people smile with a sweet or funny text, note, or small gift.  I love to hide notes in Quinns uniform pockets, I love to send him off for the week with freshly made brownies or cookies (although this doesn't happen nearly as often as it did before we had all of these kids).

Quinn, on the other hand is Mr. Practical.  He doesn't mind buying gifts, just as long as it's a useful one!  For the longest time, when he would buy me flowers (which was rare) he would only buy me something that I could replant - I think it actually pained him to think of buying something that I would only throw away in a week!  He loves the notes and treats I hide in his luggage, but for the longest time he never reciprocated.  I never thought of his failure to reciprocate as anything more than a personality difference.  He showed in so many other ways that he loved me, that it really didn't bother me.  It wasn't until he began reciprocating these little acts of love that I realized how much it meant - to both of us.

Over the years, Quinn has more increasingly been leaving little notes for me to find while he is away - occasionally I find a bag of my favorite candy from Germany under my pillow and he has even sent me fresh cut flowers a time or two!  A few weeks ago, Quinn had to get up really early to catch a flight to somewhere other than here - I'd love to say that I'm a dutiful wife and get up with him to make his coffee and breakfast before he leaves - but I'm not.  I got up several hours after he left, poured myself a cup of coffee and this caught my eye as I walked by the refrigerator:

Although I had grown used to the occasional note, this is by far the sweetest thing EVER!

The moral of the story, boys and girls, is that in order to make any marriage work, we have to learn what our spouse loves, what he/she needs and be deliberate about giving it to them.  If what our spouse needs doesn't come naturally to us, we need to discipline ourselves to do it until it does become natural to us!

Being the smartest person that I know, it wasn't a surprise to me that Quinn figured out that although I didn't expect anything in return for the notes and treats I would leave for him, it's what I needed (I think he figured this out before I did) - Although he is usually halfway around the world before I find his little surprises, it makes me feel close to him and lets me know that he loves me wherever I am from wherever he is!