I Love Daniel...

I love Daniel.  He's my Mr. Amazing.  

I cherish the way he blows me a kiss from the doorway every morning if I am awake enough to watch him tiptoeing out.  It's wonderful to hear the sound of his boots plodding up the front steps after a long work day.  He seldom complained about his two and half hours of commuting to Victoria and back for a year and half. Work is work - "Gotta make hay while the sun shines," he says.  That season is finally over, and he will be working more locally now.  I am over the moon that he'll be coming home before 7 PM!

He takes the time to comment on the new paintings on the walls or the way I arranged the furniture.  He encourages me to get out with my girl friends and never laughs at my whacky, creative gardening or homemaking ideas.  He brought me home some of the first spring flowers once...daffodils from the roadside and recently surprised me with a brand new Ninja blender!  He makes up songs for his little boy and sings them randomly everywhere.  Caleb loves it...and he relishes his bike rides and morning tumbles on the bed with Papa, too.


I love the way Daniel cracks himself up with his own jokes and has a page of pithy, thought-provoking phrases that he sometimes posts on Facebook.  He savors his coffee and his chocolate.  He inspires me to think more deeply about why the world is the way it is.  He is very good at figuring out the reasons for people's behavior.  He takes things in to the core... soul level... God's level.

Daniel gets excited over simple meals I cook and simple "dates" like iced tea and chips while watching a Dick Van Dyke or a Foyle's War episode.  We like to be creative with our transportation on dates... In April, he took me on a date in his parent's Audi.  We flaunted German accents as we cruised down the tree-lined highway for yam fries and pizza on the windy but sunny deck at the lake.  In July, he got our bikes out of storage and we biked along the dusty, sun-speckled trail to the coffee shop for refreshing bevvies.  This weekend, he's decided we'll take inner tubes down the river!  I can't wait.

He loves family time, whether it's with his family or mine.  We had all but one of my siblings up for a visit this summer along with my mom and my dad, and I adored watching him interact with each of them.  It's something special.  Whether it was swimming in the river with my brothers, sipping coffee with my mom, rattling off puns with my dad, or commenting on fashion ideas with my sisters, he jumped right in.

He is a man's man...camo, hunting, motorbikes...oh yeah. He can fix anything and everything.  He just fixed the clutch on his new truck all on his own.  Brilliant job...and tough! In less than five minutes, he can think up the most elaborate machines and contraptions to improve the world's efficiency. 

Of course he isn't perfect, but he sure is perfect for me.  He makes mistakes, but is honest about them.  He has a special place in his heart for those often overlooked...young people coming into themselves, the underdogs, single moms, neglected kids, and those lonely, "unacceptable" people.  

I love the way I can just be myself with him...We can go from serious to goofy,  from the humdrum of every day life to sizzling romance.   One night he was up late practicing his photography for a wedding, and I squeezed into my wedding dress to be his model.  We spent a couple of hours troubleshooting poses and flirting like teenagers.  It was epic.

He inspires me daily to love more deeply and more sacrificially.  He doesn't criticize...he leads by example. He is my soul mate and my best friend.