The Real Valentine's Day Post

Sorry about the fake-out last week, but today really is Valentine's Day. It is also precisely 200 days until my wife's due date.

I will not be sharing what my Valentine's Day plans are, because I don't want to tell you, and you don't really want to know.

But I do want to etch into the Internet ether just how much I love my wife, and how much she's meant to me over the years.

When we first met, back more than ten years ago, fresh out of high school, it was just a crush. Fitting for a boy weeks removed from his Senior Prom, it was a simple schoolboy crush. Meeting you then made the apprehension of college melt away. Now, don't go getting a big head about that -- it wasn't so much specifically you (you had a faraway boyfriend, remember) -- but more about the concept of you. A beautiful, smart, funny woman, plopped right into my Orientation Group. And if this was the first day, well, then surely the next four years would be memorable.

And the next four years were memorable- at least the parts that aren't too hazy. That school boy crush ebbed and flowed, but was always a part of me. I like to think that it wasn't entirely unrequited, as you would insist at the time.

What made those four years most memorable was what happened toward the end of that sophomore year. Those precious first steps, first conversations, first kisses of a new relationship. The circumstances were indeed peculiar, but, as time would prove, when you are in love, you are in love.

Since then we've had our ups and our downs, our own ebbs and flows. We broke up and returned to each other. We were separated by hundreds of miles, but spoke each night, like clockwork (plus, I found out that my clock does work in the middle of the night). I ran through the same emotions that I did when we first met - reverting back to a crush and moving forward from there.

But through it all, I never stopped loving you. Through thick and thin, good times and bad, I'm not sure that my feelings for you ever entirely left. We may have been "just friends," but you were a friend I loved, and I think you felt the same way.

Last year, when we married ("finally!" some would say) I found myself thinking about what love and relationships really are. Marriage is a commitment, an act of dedication spawned from love.

Having a baby goes beyond that commitment and dedication of marriage. Whether conceiving a child is a conscious or unconscious decision, our growing child is a manifestation of our love (in the literal and figurative senses).

And this Valentine's Day, beyond any chocolates I could buy, flowers I could send, or restaurants we could visit, knowing that we are bringing a child into this world together is all the gift I need.

It's been quite a year for our family. Going back 12 months, we've started a new job (you), moved, gotten married/gone honeymooning, started a new job (me), gotten pregnant (you, with help from me), and now we are about to close on our first home.

I gotta tell ya, I'm the luckiest school boy around.