.. Vasili.

About a month ago, when Vasili and I both had a night off and we were trying to think of what we should do together, he said to me, “Let’s pull out the crock pot and learn how to use it, just for fun.”

Um, excuse me? The crock pot? Just for fun?!  

This then spiraled a series of thoughts and realizations that after five years together, I am definitely guilty of taking him and all of his wonderfulness at least a tiny bit for granted.  I mean, I deeply care for him and trust me I know what kind of golden goose egg he is.. but just like every other person, it’s so easy sometimes to overlook just how special the things and people are right in front of you and focus on what you don’t have or what you don’t get.  In fact one of the things that underlies most of our arguments is that we both are guilty of judging what the other person says and does based on what that means in our own world.  For example, I often have questioned in the past just how much he cares for me simply because he doesn’t tell me it all the time, or that he thinks I look nice or how special I am to him.. (all the women out there, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.. lol) but what I’ve come to realize is that he doesn’t have to say it because he does things all the time that show me instead.

Like how he routinely juggles 2 jobs and still makes time to help me at my newborn sessions and weddings..

Or how he spent last Christmas with me and my family in a hospital all day cheering up my dad and helping him learn how to walk again..

And when he put a big smile on his face just for me when I wanted a photo session of us this summer..

I am beyond grateful that Vasili always supports my dreams, and in fact he often puts them before his own..  I love the fact that he helped me to take care of three little ducks like newborn babies in our apartment instead of getting upset at me for not heeding his advice that they were far more work than I thought .. I love how excited he gets about photographing storms and I can always find him with the tripod set up when the clouds are rumbling in .. I love that he loves good food as much as I do and often surprises me with dinners or breakfasts to celebrate ‘just because’.. I am grateful that he’s always there for me and my family.. I am thankful that Vasili’s family is as loving and wonderful as he is..  and most of all, I am so grateful that Vasili loves me unconditionally. I am not perfect, and in fact, I often feel very broken inside.  And when those less than perfect parts of myself have surfaced, he has never turned and run the other way. He always loves me, even through the ugly and bad, and I have him to thank for the person I am today and the person I am still becoming.