Ok, Maybe He IS Romantic

Instead of doing a year end favorite blog posts wrap up, I’ve decided to recant one of my most searched for posts. This is not a marriage blog; it’s a journey through Disability World blog. Yet people find me by googling, “My husband is not romantic.”

If you found me that way, first let me say, I’m so sorry about your husband. Join the club. I’d also like to say, I’m so sorry this blog has most likely been of no use to you and your romantic predicament.

And now I’d like to tell you about my best Christmas gift this year which will make my husband sound like quite the Romantic. I’m not even going to give you any background about the really awful date we went on where he took his most Practical Self and stomped on my dreams which resulted in a lot of, well, descriptive words coming from my mouth. (In my defense I was really hungary). That was NOT romantic, but it was the living breathing space that gives our marriage room for growth and staying power.

We were discussing how much I enjoyed watching the Paralympics this summer. I was excited to see the incredible achievements and astounding feats of athleticism by people with disabilities being celebrated around the world. I continued to have a conversation of what ifs…. what if I had the opportunity to go to Rio in 2016….what if I took a Spanish class and actually learned more about the featured sports….what if I blogged about the whole thing….what if I could help others see people with disabilities as contributors and champions? Since I was on a date and just dreaming out loud, which is totally the kind of thing Romantic Husbands love, there was no need to discuss how incredibly unrealistic this would be for so many reasons and how I would have to overcome a lot of fears to actually go. Those are the kinds of things Practical People mention.

Anyway, fast forward through the ugliness and on to Christmas. I unwrapped a checkbook, which is a weird gift and NOT romantic. This is me trying to figure out how a checkbook qualifies as a gift and not a stressor:

And then it sunk it – my Romantic Husband had opened a separate account and deposited $100 and labelled it Rio. It’s not about pinching pennies and setting up an itinerary or even actually getting to Rio. Here’s the truth – I most likely won’t make it to Rio and that’s ok.(But don’t tell him that) This gift was about saying, “I hear you and your dreams are important and I choose you.”  I’d say that’s pretty darn romantic, wouldn’t you?