A Little Book Of Love

In celebration of Valentine's Day, I'm going to share a little secret (shhh, don't tell Al). Seven years ago I started writing in a little book, I called it our Book of Love ....


It was 2003 and Al and I were both deployed ... and we weren't deployed together ... I was deployed to one side of the globe in a safe little place and Al was deployed to the desert risking his life every day flying in, out and through combat zones. We were separated for 7 1/2 months ... my heart hurt everyday and I have never been so scared to lose my husband.

When I deployed I brought a journal, thinking I'd write about my experiences ... instead I started writing a list of all the little things I loved about my husband. I wrote little things like, I love ...

... laughing together
... your chest
... the smell of beer on your breath

I wrote deeper things like, I love ...

... that you'd rather talk than fight
... that you're not afraid to show me how much you care when we are in public

After I wrote a few pages I shipped it off to my husband and wrote that someday as I continue writing in this book that we'll have our own little Library of Love. About a month later I received a box back ... in it was our book ... and following my handwritten pages were his handwritten notes back to me. I cried reading each one ... some of the things he wrote I already knew, other notes I never did.

In these pages are documented our journey in marriage and love. We started this as just "husband and wife", now we continue it as a "daddy and mommy". We've been married 11 years and our love has grown and changed ... sometimes we forget the little things we loved about each other back when life was simpler ... like "taking afternoon naps". When I flip through the pages of our book I smile and I cry and I'm so thankful to be reminded of all the little things we love about each other! I envision us old, gray, and grumpy ... shuffling over to a shelf holding many books in our Library of Love ... pulling out the book that started it all and reading about the love of our youth and then continuing to read snippets of our love notes that carried us into old age.


I hope this has inspired you to start you own little Book of Love ... there is nothing sweeter. In fact, I think I'll start one for Kelty ... because I know that today when I write "I love .... tickling your little feet"... that very soon, that moment will be gone and I won't have any little feet to tickle ... they'll be walking 1000 miles away in a size 10 on some college campus.