The True Source of Romance

“Go ahead and do a lit­tle shop­ping. I’ve gotta fin­ish a few things, ” Vitaliy said to me as he dropped me off at the mall. Really? I thought. I knew that he had planned a spe­cial date for me, but I def­i­nitely didn’t know it started with a mini shop­ping spree. Any­thing after that was just a bonus, right ladies? In real­ity, it wasn’t actu­ally part of the date, it was a means of dis­trac­tion. He had a few things left to pre­pare for the actual “date”. But that is exactly the kind of guy Vitaliy is — he cares about the small­est detail. My first Christ­mas card was hand made by him with a spe­cific con­cept and details in mind. Hall­mark had noth­ing on this guy!

I relaxed on a bench out­side of the mall with the sun kiss­ing my skin, the wind blow­ing my hair, and lives pass­ing me by. This was the first Sat­ur­day in awhile when there was no rush, no dead­line, nowhere to be. I could sit and take in each story going on around me — the mom run­ning into the mall for a last minute gift, the impa­tient dri­ver scream­ing at the elderly pedes­trian stalling her, the ladies in the flower shop prepar­ing a beau­ti­ful bou­quet. It’s these moments, the good and the bad ones, that truly make up life. I just love observ­ing human behav­ior. Do you ever stop and ask your­self why you do what you do? What is caus­ing the 50 year old woman to scream at the elderly hus­band drop­ping off his wife? As I sat con­tem­plat­ing the life of the 50 year old woman, I began to think about my own life. I couldn’t help but think how blessed I am that when I have a bad week and want to scream at the world like the 50 year old woman, I have a hus­band who wants to sweep me off to a mag­i­cal place, away from any­one else in the world, to love me and encour­age me to face the world again.

And that is exactly what he did. We drove far, far away to a mag­i­cal place where it was me, Vitaliy, and God’s cre­ation. There wasn’t any­body or any­thing there to dis­turb us or dis­tract us. We had each other and that was all we needed. Well, I won’t lie — a girl’s gotta eat! And my Squeeze Machine came equipped with a vari­ety of culi­nary delights to sat­isfy my desirous palate. He even brought along hot tea and cook­ies for dessert. Now peo­ple, I’m seri­ous when I say this. This is how self­ish I am. I seri­ously thought a few times through­out the meal, “I won­der if he brought dessert…if he did, he prob­a­bly brought a fancy one…all I would love right now is a choco­late chip cookie.” And what does he bring — a choco­late chip cookie! Does he pay atten­tion to details or what!?! It was an absolutely amaz­ing sur­prise date. Not for Valentine’s Day, not for our anniver­sary, just because he loves me.

We were there for at least 3 hours just eat­ing and talk­ing and being. I, of course, couldn’t help but think of God. How could I be sur­rounded by such beauty, expe­ri­enc­ing such love and not think of my Sav­ior? Though Vitaliy was the one giv­ing to me in this moment, the true source of this gift was Jesus. He knew that I needed to be romanced. He knew that I needed to be replen­ished. And so he used my man to do just that. I am absolutely thank­ful to Vitaliy for being such a sac­ri­fi­cial and lov­ing hus­band. How­ever, if I stop with Vitaliy, than I miss expe­ri­enc­ing the One who is really pur­su­ing my heart.

I can tes­tify to the inti­macy that God wants to share with you and me. How has God been pur­su­ing you lately?

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Here was the view sur­round­ing us.

If you like pic­nics,  you gotta get one of these. This pic­nic bag has absolutely any­thing you need. Makes a hus­bands job so much easier!

Check out the spread!!

There is my Squeeze Machine. I love you, babes.

You know I had to include the amaz­ing Choco­late Chip cookie — my favorite! Doesn’t Vitaliy look like he thinks I’m going to try and steal his Russ­ian tea cake?

This is me at the end of the date not want­ing the moment to end.

This is Vitaliy at the end of the date stand­ing tall and proud for hav­ing accom­plished his goal of mak­ing his wife feel loved and happy.