Tuesday, February 21, 2012

What We Did For Valentine’s Day (Part 1)


One of the hardest parts of having a child with a disability (whether short-term or long-term) is the toll it takes on your marriage.  At first my wife and I didn’t really acknowledge this fact. We did what we usually do: buckle down and get things done. (I’d normally say we “maned up”, but for some reason my wife doesn’t like me describing her like that.)
But you can only push for so long before you simply run out of energy.
And that’s where we’ve found ourselves.  Exhausted.
That’s why we decided to make Valentine’s a special day.  But because Eli was getting a new brace (more on that later this week) we had to celebrate Valentine’s Day a day early.  Which of course, we wrote about last week.
It’s pretty amazing just how quickly you can lose a personal connection with your spouse. So as my wife and I went to J. Alexander’s (a very under-rated restaurant) we spend a few hours just talking and reconnecting.  It’s something that we haven’t done in far too many months.  And if we’re going to be honest, our relationship has really suffered because of it.  That was only part 1 of the Valentine’s event.
Since we don’t do anything half way in this family, we had a special valentine’s dinner with the kids on Valentine’s Day.
Let me just say that there’s something wonderful about coming home and seeing your wife home early and busy preparing homemade chocolate covered strawberries and steak for dinner.  (I get hungry just thinking about it now!) 

Yes, this is really what we had for dinner.
Of course, in our family, Valentine’s Day is about pictures (so is Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Arbor Day, 4th of July and Tuesdays.)  So we took a few of those as well. 

This is how we spend Valentine’s Day.  One part reconnecting with each other, and one part celebrating as a family.  How did you spend Valentine’s Day?

No comments:

Post a Comment