I crawled into bed, ready for sleep, but what Catherine said absolutely gobsmacked me

I’m spending this week in Vail skiing with some of my best friends. I haven’t taken a guy’s trip since my bachelor party.  Since Catherine can’t ski during pregnancy, we both thought it’d be a good idea to spend some time with my buddies before the baby comes.

As you may know, Catherine and I are pretty inseparable. I know a lot of couples need their space from their spouse at times, but that’s not us. We’d be with each other twenty-four hours a day, if it were possible. Needless to say, we’ll miss each other this week.

Catherine may kill me for sharing this with you all, but I thought it was too sweet not to share.

I’d just finished packing for my trip Saturday night for my flight early the next morning and crawled into bed. Catherine told me how much she was going to miss me, and I told her I would miss her too.

These weren’t just hollow words though. I could tell Catherine genuinely hated the idea of being away from me.  (This is even though the guys trip was actually her idea, since she knew it’d be good for me to get away with my friends.) She loves me so much it actually pains her to be away from me.

So after telling her how much I loved her and how I would miss her and call her during the trip, I leaned over and kissed her goodnight. Usually when I kiss her goodnight, she turns the lamp off that sits next to her on the bedside table. This time however, she just continued to stare at me with those big brown eyes of hers. When I asked her if she was going to turn the light off, I could see her eyes start to well up. After a few seconds, with tears starting to form in her eyes, she said in a shaky voice, “If I turn the light off, I won’t be able to see your face anymore.” It was probably the single sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Since I was leaving before sunrise the next morning, she was soaking up our last few moments together before I left for five days.

I realized in that moment just how tender my wife’s heart is and how lucky I am to be responsible for guarding that heart.

The feeling of being on the receiving end of a love that strong is indescribable.

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