Chad

For a Valentine surprise, last weekend Chad took me to My Jewelry Box in DuBois to pick out a Pandora bracelet, which I had mentioned I thought would be nice to have. It was a wonderful surprise, and I LOVE it very much! But...I now feel pretty inadequate at reciprocating such a wonderful gift. What do men even want for Valentine's Day? So, I have decided to create a "public" declaration of my love and appreciation for Chad!

Prior to dating Chad, I had only "dated" one other boy for an entire year straight and that was when I was like fourteen, so it barely counts. All other beaus usually lost my interest in less than a year. Also, a good deal of my fellas before Chad were more along the "bad boy" type, not all, but quite a few. I thought I could "fix" them and help them to see how much better life could be. Along with that often came worrying if they were going to be high, or driving drunk, or if they were safe. And then one day, along came Chad. "Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do? Goody, goody, two-shoes..." I didn't have to take care of him all of the time, but we took care of each other, and that was so much different and so much better!

Chad and I were working at Dunhams together; I was a cashier and he was a manager...and we fell in love. He was so funny, and sweet, and cute, and I loved his smile. His big blue eyes were soooo dreamy too! Chad asked me to marry him when we had been dating for less than three months, it was on March 16th 2004. This year will be our 8 year wedding anniversary! So, even though he was very unlike most boys I had previously been attracted to, I just knew that he was the one.

In the 8 years that we have been married we have: bought a house, sold it, moved to Clarion, Chad got a college degree, we moved back to where I grew up so Chad could do an internship, and then he got an awesome job. We made a gorgeous, amazing daughter, we dealt with the news of her Rett Syndrome, and now we are building a house. We are hard workers and a really great team. I could not imagine any better of a partner to share life with.

Our life is not perfect, our relationship is not perfect...we are not perfect! We argue and disagree and have rough times sometimes. We get on each other's nerves! But we also love each other unconditionally. Even the things that might drive us crazy about each other, we still accept them and love the other for who they are. We help each other work through things. We say thank you all the time. Every night when we sit down to supper Chad says, "Thanks for making supper honey."

We know each other inside and out. We know what the other is going to say and do. Sometimes I could have a conversation with Chad, minus Chad, because I know him that well. I like it that way. I have said before that he is my rock, but I think I am his too. We know that in this world of uncertainty, we can always, always depend on each other...ALWAYS. I don't know if I could ever ask for more. I hope I never, ever, ever have to know what it is like to be without him; I don't think I could bear it.

Honestly, even after all that I just wrote, I still feel like I haven't nailed what I want to say about Chad. But then maybe I don't have the words to explain how completely I love him.