Spiritual Sunday - The Language of Love

As we sat in church today, I noticed Splenda's hands.

I don't know if he felt me looking at them and so he looked at them as well, but when he saw the paint, he started to try to scrape it off.  I stopped him.

Anyone who has been around this blog the last little bit knows it's been a rough several weeks.  What I haven't shared is something that I didn't want to be mistakenly judged about, but in order to share the whole story, I have to fess up.

We have bed bugs.  Yep.  The disgusting little creatures that are literally everywhere across the globe right now.  In 5 star hotels to the local pay-by-the-hour motels in the seedy parts of town.  Everywhere in the US and across the world.  Right now, they are epidemic.  Let me clarify - they are NOT related to one's housekeeping.  You can get one hitchhiking from a hotel room and next thing you know, you are infested.

We didn't discover them until a little over a month ago.  Right before Christmas as a matter of fact.  Apparently they came with 'dawgs bed when we moved it out of the apartment he was renting.  He didn't stay at the apartment much, so he didn't know they were lurking there either.  I am betting they are all over in the carpets there and no one knows a thing.  They can live for up to a year.  They are pesky and difficult at best to get rid of.  Their bites aren't big, and are easily mistaken for a regular spider bite and so they can go undetected for long periods of time.  Needless to say, they suck.  On so many levels.  We are lucky that our case is not a complete infestation.  But if you have even one you have to act fast and drastic or you will soon be overrun.

When we discovered them, the first thing Splenda did was go right to the www to figure out the best and fastest way to get rid of them.  We have spend the last 6 weeks trying everything.  Freezing.  Heating.  Steaming.  The Yankee room was the first room we found them.  We sealed it off, started to treat it and thought we had them licked.

A few days later, a bite occurred in my bedroom.  Bigger guns came out.  Splenda disassembled every piece of our furniture while we moved into the Yankee room.  I have been living out of totes and sleeping on a mattress on the floor while he treats our room, bedding, clothing and furniture.

And of course, now that all the furniture is out, we ought to paint right?  So treating and then painting the room.  You know how long that all takes?  Also, tossed my mattress, got a new one, treat it, encase it, etc.
The past week, I have been on my very last nerve.  THE.LAST.NERVE.

Poor Splenda.  Between his job, which is hatefully busy right now, his calling as YM President, the added responsibility of Sissy, and my own health issues, he has had his hands full.  Not enough time to get everything done.  Yet, he saw how unhappy I was with our situation, and though tired as a dog himself, he stayed up last night finishing our room, and assembling the bed so that I could sleep in my own room, in my own bed again.

So as I looked at those hands this morning as we sat quietly in church, I was overcome with love for my husband.  I reviewed everything that has happened over the past 6 weeks.  The loss of Jill.  The new responsibility of Sissy.  The change in our life as we knew it.  His son going back to the Marine's.  The bed bugs that he has single handedly tackled.  He is exhausted.  He's tired.  He's worried.  He's overwhelmed. 
And yet, in his desire to see me happy, he worked long into the night to get our bedroom back to where I could sleep in it and live out of my dressers and closet once more.

The paint still left on his hands, is to me, the tangible symbol of how much he loves me.  I don't need flowers.  I don't need romantic nights out.  I don't need the words.  His actions have done it all.
I looked in his face a little later in the meeting and saw the utter tiredness and weariness in them.  And, the fact that much of that is because he loves me and wants me to be happy and comfortable is just overwhelming.  I am so loved by him.  He loves me.  He wants me to be happy.  He will do anything for me.
I whine, I cry, I bitch, I moan and he says nothing.  He just goes to work doing whatever it takes to make things right.  I married a saint.

As I processed my feelings the rest of church (I may or may not have let my mind wander during other lessons), I was overcome with a very humbling feeling.  Humbled that I would be blessed with such a wonderful husband.  A companion who truly knows what it means to put his wife's happiness above his own.  He exemplifies unselfishness and compassion.  I can only hope that I can learn to live worthy of him and become more like him.

Thank you Splenda.  Thank you for taking care of me, of our children, our granddaughter, our home.  For working long hours to provide for us.  Making sure things run at home.  Battling the damn bed bugs.  And for doing it all without complaint.

I love you more than the sea.  More than the ocean.  To the moon and back.

xoxoxox
M