And He Does It Again!

A true picture of our family: Sam has no pants on, there's junk on the floor, and I couldn't find birthday candles so I had to use an IKEA tea light instead.

Another year, another birthday for this man that I love.  Last week, we celebrated rather unceremoniously, which helped me avoid another burned cake incident. I did, however, bust out the imported brownie mix.  You can't mess up when all you have to do is add eggs, oil, and water!

Some of our good friends finally returned from Thailand with their newest addition, so we celebrated Kevin's birthday with them and another family that make up our little community here.  I offered Kevin a Saturday morning alone at Starbucks but, being the simpleton that he is, he opted to seclude himself at home in the bedroom instead.  And that was about it for our wild, crazy birthday fun.  Not even 30 yet and this is how we live it up!

Maintaining Kevin's birthday tradition from last year (can you have a tradition after one year?  I think yes.), here are 29 reason why I'm thankful to be married to this man:

1. He continues to put Christ at the center of our lives & family.
2. He is intentional to spend quality time with the boys every evening, even if it's at the end of a long day for him.
3. He spends hours & hours studying Chinese so we can really live a full life here.
4. He always voices his appreciation for everything I do in the home, especially when all I feel like I've done all day involved poop.
5. He sacrifices part of his lunch break to hang out with the boys so I can take a shower.
6. He is still the most terrific listener.
7. He happily gives Sami his evening bottle every night and loves the snuggle time with his little man.
8. He gives me preference to use the Kindle whenever I want, even though it was technically his Christmas present.
9. He supports my efforts to cook meat-less at least twice a week and doesn't even have to pretend to like my lentil "meat"loaf--he actually does!  
10. He helps our family save money so we could afford to bring home our two greatest blessings from Ethiopia.  Whenever I felt anxious about the big expenditures it required of us, he told me that it's just money and that we were just going to spend it.  Simple as that.
11. He has mastered the Denton Public Library online borrowing system.
12. He is ever-patient with Micah as he identifies every animal he see as a dog.
13. Since his Chinese vocabulary now far exceeds mine, he is intentional about teaching me new words because he knows I love this language but don't have as much time for it as I used to.
14. He knows more about buying diapers & formula than I do because he has assumed this responsibility all to himself.
15. He listens to books-on-tape in order to pass the time doing dishes. 
16. He laughs at me when I'm being silly, even though the average person would probably just find my antics annoying.
17. Before Sam was sleeping through the night, he once found me underneath the crib in search of a pacifier at 3 AM in tears.  After that, he took over night time baby duty.
18. He has learned that when I dream about planning vacations in Australia and purchasing $1000, I usually don't actually intend on following through with these plans.  Usually.
19. He is patient & gentle.
20. He keeps giving our faithful quadruped (our new moniker for Beans, thanks to our both reading Swiss Family Robinsons) more chances to fit into our family, even though he tried to lick the boys' face far too often.
21. He's not afraid to ride his bike in the rain.
22. He eats Chinese food that I don't like off my plate when we go out with friends, even if he has to pay for it later in the bathroom.
23. The simplest way to his heart is with a back massage.
24. He fights to continue to date his wife, even though when we go out, we're both tired & ready to go home by 8:30.
25. He insists on pushing the huge double stroller (Phil & Ted have not yet graced this family!) when we go for our evening walks.
26. As long as dinner ends with pudding, he is a one happy guy.
27. His birthday present to himself is a new bike because he wants something newer & safer to ride when he carries the boys.
28. He is wise yet continues to seek wise counsel regarding work & family.
29. He strives to always be the first to apologize.

To my best friend and father of my children: happy birthday!