Family. That’s right. The Family I’ve built with my wife 🙂
I have to say that I’ve recently realized I’m super greatful for something else about Chantale. I am just so happy about how much she loves being a Mom. It’s true! She’s been fantastic with Kyle ever since he was born, and had always been great with James and Melyssa ever since she met them, but lately, I see it in everything she does. She loves being a mother and she seems to fill up with joy and love whenever we’re all together.
Just this past weekend we introduced the kids to Back to the Future and I’m sure you can picture all of us in the living room. Chantale nursing Kyle with Melyssa sitting next to her, James on the couch with Casey, and me in the middle on the rocking chair we use to rock Kyle prior to his bedtime. As I rocked Kyle after his feeding and Chantale made us all popcorn, I could practically feel the love coming from her as her eyes sparkled with it.
And it’s not just in those special moments, either. It’s in the way she cares, fiercely, about how the kids are doing in school and if they’re getting enough rest and/or enough exercise/playtime. It’s in how she gives so much of herself and her time to ensuring the kids’ homework and projects are done correctly and neatly. It’s in how she takes the time to surf the web with them to teach them to gather information for their work and takes the time to use the tools at our disposal (books, dictionaries, encyclopedias) to tutor them.
Heck, it’s even very apparent as we were walking around Wal-Mart last night and she went around picking stocking stuffers for all the kids, making sure to get stuff they would really enjoy and also have fun with. And she makes me laugh in that how after all that time, as we’re finally making our way back home, she takes a deep breath of relief at having finished, and suddenly slumps down sad that she forgot to get me anything. This, of course, makes me laugh as there is nothing more I could possibly want, especially after all she’s done and all she’s given.
Sweetie, you are the best gift I could ever have hoped for and the way you give of yourself to our family day after day, much less year after year, is worth more to me than anything I could possibly ever receive on “one” day of the year 🙂
As we got onto the road and I realized the time, I told her I was stopping off at St. Hubert’s for a nice hot chicken sandwich take-out for her, and I could almost see the tears forming in her eyes. After a long day with no thought for food, me taking care of Kyle and taking the time to fill her belly with one of her favorite meals, relaxed her almost as much as a pampering massage could have 🙂 Somehow, strangely enough, she doesn’t feel deserving of pampering, even to a level as small as picking up a hot meal on the go.
What a silly, selfless, loving, caring, and beautiful woman I have for a wife. 🙂