Love is:

Adrian and I have been together now for almost 9 1/2 years.

I realize that love means different things to different people.

This is what love in my marriage looks like to me (coming from Adrian).

LOVE IS:

1.  When he gets up before me to get ready for work and after he gets out of the bed, he takes the extra blanket and covers me, and then takes every other pillow and cushion in the room and stacks them on top of me because he knows I like a lot of weight crunching me into the bed.

2.  When he gives the kids bath, hair washes, blow dries their hair, and tucks them in bed so I can sit on the couch and look at the walls.

3.  When I'm immobilized from calling our insurance company (because they cause me so much stress) to ask about out-of-network benefits, coverage, and to send a form, and he takes care of all of it from his car as he's driving on the road for work, gets the info, and gets them to mail him the said form.  And I don't have to do anything.

4.  When he does 95% of the grocery shopping, 100% of the cooking, 50% of the cleaning up, and buys me the things I like at the grocery store without my even asking.

5.  When after 6 1/2 years of marriage and my thousands of various purchases of extra, non-essential stuff (many of these purchases are in the middle of the night from Amazon when I had pregnancy insomnia), he has never, ever, not once, told me to take anything back. (and I never have.)

6.  When he looks over at me in the car when we're driving to church and says with tons of sincerity in his voice, "You are so beautiful."

7.  When he is a total and complete jerk, and comes back hours later, or a day later, or 6 1/2 years later, and apologizes and says he was a total and complete jerk.

8.  When I've needed a new car twice in our married life so far and he tells me to pick any car at all that I want and we will get it.  And then I pick the one I want - and he goes and gets me the limited, platinum addition, top-of-the-line version of that car when I would've been fine with cloth seats.

9.  When he pulls in the driveway on Friday night after having been gone since Wednesday morning (and working 18 hour days all week) and I am so maxed out with the kids, I basically hand all 3 of the littles to him immediately following him taking off his shoes and run out the door faster than Forrest Gump.  And he sends me a text 10 minutes later saying for me stay out for as many hours as I need and then makes suggestions for me - like me maybe getting dinner, a movie, a massage, or my nails done.

10.  When I have to spit out a small piece of filet mignon in my cloth napkin at a nice restaurant because it's too chewy for whatever reason - and at the end of the dinner, he is collecting my napkin so we can go and I reluctantly hand him my napkin.  And he gets it, nods, and wraps my cloth napkin inside of his clean cloth napkin and then sets it on the table.

11.  When he still opens doors for me after 9 1/2 years.

12.  When I preach in Mississippi on a Sunday morning and he happily sits in a pew with the 4 kids toward the front of the church and is so proud of me being up there in the pulpit.

13.  When his confidence as a man and my husband is in no way threatened by the many jokes about him being the "Preacher's Wife."  He embraces it wholeheartedly and offers to head up the Women's Guild meetings.  And he says that me preaching, being in church leadership, and in the pulpit is one of his favorite places to see me.

14.  When our house is usually messy and he never complains about it - and when it gets too bad, he gets juiced up on caffeine himself and busts his butt all day Saturday and/or Sunday to clean it up.

15.  When, although he doesn't like yardwork himself, but knows a beautiful yard and curb appeal mean the world to me, he gets out there every Saturday morning or afternoon and weed eats, mows 1.75 acres, edges a huge circle drive and driveway, blows away all the clippings, and then puts the mower and everything away in the garage.

16.  When while it is true that he has a very good job, if he had a job that paid minimum wage, he would work 4 jobs to make sure that not only did we have everything we needed, but that he was able to pay to get me to the moon if I wanted to be an astronaut.

17.  When even when I am going psycho on him (not very often), he gives me the benefit of the doubt - or eventually gives me the benefit of the doubt - in whatever I am going psycho about.

18.  When we are eating a business dinner with his boss, or boss' boss, or work colleagues, and they comment that he talks about me and the kids all the time to them.

19.  When we have 4 kids bc he knows I wanted a lot - and I know that he would've initially, at least, been content with 2.  And he says that while he wants to be done, if I wanted a 5th, he'd be willing to have a conversation about it.

20.  When he cries when I cry.

21.  When he is introspective enough to consistently work on his own crap and do hard work on his end in order to be the best husband, daddy, and person he can be in this life.

22.  When he loves God very deeply - and it shows in how he talks and treats people.  And he does a lot to ensure that he does his part in raising Godly children in our family and being a Godly husband to me.