Not only did we have a great weekend, but we were able to meet with old and new friends. We stayed with the LoFranco's our Fort Myers friends who moved to GreenAcres, Florida. Saturday morning started out very early as we headed to a conference in Davie, Florida from my friend's home over an hour away. My husband pulled into a popular location to buy us coffee. He came out a few minutes later (I was looking through my notes for my upcoming seminar) and I knew his boyish grin held some misfortune. It turns out the lady did not speak very good English and while he ordered two coffees, one black and one with just cream, she smiled and told him, "I'll take care of this for you." Well, take care of it she did. Both cups were heavily creamed and with an abundance of sugar. The first sugary sip and the ones after kept me grinning all the way to Davie.
My husband is a sweetheart of a man, and if this lady said, "I'll take care of it for you," he just couldn't bring himself to correct her, much as he wanted to because he drinks his coffee black! This man, who I will celebrate my 30th wedding anniversary with in August is so many things to me. And all of them center on his compassion, care, and love for me and our family. Many people would argue that you should get what you pay for and in most cases I would agree. Our relationship is such that we could laugh about this during the day and he just smiled when I recounted the story to my good friend, Maria, who saw my coffee cup when she arrived at the conference hours later.
Relationships don't happen overnight. They take work, lots of work. There would have been a time when I would have not considered this funny...at all. What makes the story endearing to me was the fact that he couldn't hurt this ladies feelings. She was having a hard time and gave the gentleman ahead of my husband the cream and sugar (separate) when he asked for black coffee. My husband thought he'd be home free as he expected her to do the same and give little packets on the side. I still was able to drink my coffee and actually enjoyed it, he barely drank his!
This all goes to show that his care for this stranger was no less than his care for his family, in that when things aren't perfect around our home, and they rarely are, he isn't one to complain. There are no complaints if dinner isn't cooked to his specifications, on time, or at times forgotten! I've let the time escape and before I realized it, he was home. I'm great at fixing quick meals and he is more interested in my day, the children and just being home to care what is on his plate. As long as everyone is happy and healthy, he is happy.
I didn't mean to go on like this about my husband (who earlier in the day sent one of the children upstairs to my office to bring me a rose he had cut from a bush in our yard)...but he is a wonderful man. My mother prayed for a Godly husband for me and I pray for my children's spouse. I think we can all learn from Jeff. I'm sure I would have corrected the lady in the store and obtained just what I ordered. A little inconvience for me, because I know my husband's heart, is good for the soul!
[Note: By the way, at the conference Paula Stevenson and Sky McNeill gave a seminar to a packed crowd. The topic was Creating an Unbreakable Bond between Parent and Child. They will be sharing an online seminar sometime this month, and I will post it on the website, Twitter and Facebook.]
