Counting My Blessings

Sunday is always a good day to count your blessings, and that's what I find myself doing today. On this very date twenty-four years ago, my husband began his career as an airline pilot for a major airline. It's a good job--but not a perfect one (if there is such a thing), because it takes him away from home too much. However, in this day and age, when being employed by the same company over a number of decades is becoming a rarity, he feels lucky to have had job security for so long.

And I feel lucky to have him. We began dating when we were both fifteen, and I knew almost from the start that he was the only one for me. He was my first love, my first serious boyfriend. And thirty-one years ago, we two became one in the Sacrament of Matrimony.

When we got married, my hubby was in Navy flight school. While we were still a couple of bright-eyed newlyweds, he earned his wings and became a Naval Aviator, a pilot of supersonic fighter jets. I tell you, when he put on that green flight suit...be still my heart! The word "dashing" doesn't begin to describe it. He was like a real-life action hero. (He was! No chuckling from the peanut gallery; and by the peanut gallery, I mean my sons. Deal with it: your dad is a hero!)

After seven years of marriage and the birth of son #4, my husband decided to get out of the military so that our family could set down roots, and it was then that he began his career as an airline pilot. Twenty-one years ago, we bought a Colonial-style house in New England, which we still own and love, and not long after that, we welcomed son #5 to our brood. While our boys were growing up, my husband was always a loving, hands-on, involved dad (not to mention their Pee Wee football coach, their youth lacrosse coach, and their high school lacrosse coach). He had to be gone for a few days at a time for his airline job; but when he was with us, he was there 100%--for the boys and for me.

This heroic husband of mine has always supported and encouraged me in everything I do, and he looks beyond my many faults and sees only good things. He makes me feel safe, cherished, and loved more than I deserve to be loved. He makes me laugh. He truly does treat me like a queen, and he's taught his sons to treat me with the same respect. (From the time they were sprouts, they knew they'd better--or Heaven help them!) Because of his fine example, I now have grown sons who are so sweet in their dealings with me that sometimes, just thinking about the five of them reduces me to tears.

Yes, I am inordinately blessed. God has been so good to me, and I thank Him profusely. I thank Him most for giving me the man in the picture above, because all of my earthly happiness begins and ends with that handsome pilot. [Sigh] He's my hero.