Day 3 – Thankful for My husband #CrazyThankful

I’ve told you all the 100 reasons I love my husband and I’ve told you how we met, fell in love, and lived “happily ever after“, but today I want to tell you why I’m thankful for my husband.

November 3, 2015

When Howard and I married, we barely knew each other. We had only literally know each other for five months, but we knew we were in love and we were ready to get started with our little family. We knew it would be difficult, but we had no idea how difficult it could possibly be (or at least I didn’t…I don’t know about him). I’m sure that many people didn’t believe that we would make it through this marriage and there were probably some that were hoping we didn’t make it through.

We were on our honeymoon at a hotel in Austin, TX when Howard got the call that he had a job in Palestine, TX (my hometown) and that he needed to be there right away. We finished our honeymoon, which was really only two nights in a hotel, and he headed to Palestine while I packed up our apartment and moved us three and half hours away. We were moving near my family, but away from his family.

After that moving ordeal, I was quickly able to find a job, but his job actually played out after the holidays. We weren’t told that his job was seasonal so this was completely unexpected. Well, I’ve told the story before (see that link at the beginning) but we went through our rockiest times during these first couple of years of our marriage.

Suddenly, my chef husband couldn’t find a cooking job anywhere in town or nearby and so he just became a butcher. Just like that! He’s a good one, too.

Fast forward to now and let me tell you what’s going on with him…

He’s lost 90 lbs since August!

In June, Howard had knee surgery after injuring it (torn meniscus) and was out of work for what was supposed to be 12 weeks. While he was out doing physical therapy, he decided to have bariatric sleeve surgery to help him lose weight. During his bariatric surgery, his heart went into an odd rhythm and his surgeon recommended he see the cardiologist once we returned from the hospital. He was given a heart monitor to wear for two weeks, but it only took three days (and six calls to the cardiologist from the monitoring company) and we were back in the cardiologist’s office. He said Howard’s heart was going into a bad rhythm and he was sure that Howard would need a defibrillator. That was on a Monday and by Friday, we were back in the hospital and Howard had a ventricular tachycardia so he was given a defibrillator. Because of all of this, he was basically asked to resign from work while he healed so he’s been out of work since June 2015 while he heals.

I’m telling you all of this because I want to now tell you why I am so incredibly thankful for my husband for everything he has given up, gone through, and lives with because he chooses every day to be my husband.

• Even though he no longer eats “normal” because of his surgery, he still cooks for Benjamin and me as much as possible.
• Even though he can’t find a job in his chosen field, he continues to live in a small town because I get to be near my family.
• On days when I have work to do or I’m not feeling well (basically, every day) he takes care of Benjamin’s morning routine and much of his evening routine.
• He puts up with my depression and does everything in his power to try to cheer me up or at least make my life a little easier.
• He seeks out ways to be a better person, husband, and father every day of his life.

Join me on my journey to write 30 days of thankfulness in the month of November for NaBloPoMo and follow my hashtag – #CrazyThankful – to find out what I’m thankful for this month and all year long!

What are you thankful for today?