A Thanksgiving Love Letter

I hope you enjoy this month’s thankful-themed contribution to Hallmark’s “Life Is A Special Occasion” campaign! Let me know in the comments who YOU’RE thankful for!

As I have extensively documented here on Suburban Scrawl, I live a very full, blessed life. Though I know I make most of the choices that pertain to me and thus can claim lots of credit for the various things that happen in my life, I am well aware of the help I receive from others along the way: we don’t go through life alone.

This month, Hallmark asked me to express my thanks to someone special, someone who has had an impact on my life. I decided to thank the person who is my home base, my husband Jim.

We met when I was sixteen (after much stalking on my part) and he was nearly eighteen.

We married when I was eighteen and he was nearly twenty (and in the United States Navy). As we continue to beat the odds just by having creating a strong marriage, I thank my lucky stars for Jim every single day. It is in large part due to his steadfast support, good advice, and unwavering faith in me that I am able to have the life that I have. When it comes to my adventures, sometimes he’s in the driver’s seat, sometimes he’s in the passenger seat (holding on for dear life, I might add), and sometimes he plays a minor supporting role, but he is always there, loving me.

He agreed with me one hundred percent when I told him that just because we were getting married early and didn’t have any disposable income to speak of, I wasn’t going to quit college. (He wasn’t suggesting that I quit: I was just declaring that I wasn’t going to.) In fact, he took on extra household duties when he wasn’t out at sea so I could focus on my studies, and didn’t complain when I got a job to help pay for college: working in a retail store, which caused occasional infringements on our precious time together in the evenings and on the weekends when his ship was in its home port.

When I graduated from college with a degree in Elementary Education and more of a desire to become a mother than a teacher, we agreed it was time to start our family. Jim is and has always been the best kind of father to our boys, even better than I could have imagined. He is involved with every aspect of raising them. We parent as a team, always. We follow what we call the “Cliff and Claire Huxtable Model”: it’s us first, together, and THEN them.

We operate as equals in the house. He cleans bathrooms, and I have no problem with taking out the trash or cutting the grass.

He appreciates that I am an independent type of person and although every now and then I don’t mind a little rescue by my very own Prince Charming, I am usually capable of taking care of things on my own. I love that he loves that about me.

I have described Jim as “the calm in the middle of my storm”, and that–if I do say so myself–about covers it. This man listens to every single one of my ideas no matter how outrageous they are, and, while he gives me honest feedback if he thinks I haven’t thought about every angle, he is supportive, saying, “You do what you want to do: I’m behind you all the way.” I run around, juggling a hundred different tasks and projects as I do, and he says, “What can I do to help?” He hugs me when I occasionally cry stress-filled tears. He is my safety zone.

When it finally became possible for me to work from home, doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do, he was just as happy about it as I was. I am a lucky, lucky girl. I can’t wait to see what the rest of our life together holds.

Jim, I am thankful for you today and every day. I love you.

By the way, if you’d like to write a Thanksgiving love letter of your own, or just want to pick up a card that tells someone “Thank you!”, check out your local Gold Crown Hallmark store or Hallmark.com. The fine folks at Hallmark can help you get your message communicated perfectly!

Disclosure: I am BEYOND thrilled to be partnering with Hallmark on their “Life Is A Special Occasion” campaign for 2012. As a Hallmark LIASO blogger I am being compensated to write about every day moments of all sizes, family traditions, the relationships I cherish the most, and much more. All words, opinions, and photos are mine. Thanks so much to the folks at Hallmark for selecting me for this campaign: it’s an honor for me to be a part of it. Oh, and by the way, you can sign up for special offers and new product information from Hallmark by clicking here (and why wouldn’t you, really?).