The Thought That Counts

Luisa was in Washington D.C. on Valentine's Day which was fine because we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, except for showering our kids with love and chocolates and special notes. The truth is that we didn't really celebrate Valentine's Day before kids either. I am a hopeless romantic but Luisa is not and, over time, I've accepted that she's not going to write me love letters and that she'd rather have a cup of coffee she didn't have to prepare than a poem. I've even come to enjoy that we don't celebrate these sorts of things. There's no pressure and I can be lazy without guilt.

So, this year, she was out of town and I made her a little Valentine card to give her when she got back. When she arrived home, I gave her my card and she said, "Did you get mine?"

I hadn't.

She told me she had bought a card and tucked a little treat inside and mailed it to me from D.C. because she wanted me to know she was thinking of me. I was touched and she said, "Maybe it will come tomorrow."

It didn't.

As the days passed, I suggested that she hadn't put enough postage on it to cover the additional weight caused by the Jelly Bellies she'd included. Yes, by this time, she had already revealed the contents of the card. She assured me that she had, in fact, put sufficient postage on it.

More days passed and we decided that someone somewhere was eating my Jelly Bellies and enjoying my love note.

Luisa has been in Africa since March 4th and I've been here at home. It's been gray and cold and I've been tired and spread too thin. We haven't been able to talk very often because of the time difference and our busy schedules so I've also been a little lonely.

And then, last Friday, I received a slip of paper in our mailbox that said I had a letter waiting for me at the post office. I turned the slip over and it said it was from Luisa and that there was insufficient postage. One month to the date, my Valentine had arrived.

So, yesterday, I went to the post office and paid $1.34 to get my overdue Valentine. It's amazing what you can get for $1.34 these days. I got a love note from Luisa, a box of Jelly Bellies and the gift of being right. I also got a story which is what I love more than anything.