two valentine's, two surprises...

in honor of valentine's day, i am reflecting back on two special valentine's days that jamil and i have celebrated. each of them were surprises! one year he surprised me and the other one i surprised him! i am also linking up to kelly's show us your life valentine's dates and memories! so welcome, if this is your first time stopping by! read a post or two or three and leave a comment and let me know you were here!



his surprise to me...

i wouldn't say that jamil is the most romantic man as far as planning surprises and gifts. but this year he planned such a special surprise date that i have always remembered. i do not like surprises at all. especially if i know there is a surprise coming, i would rather just know. but this day, he totally blew me away and i did not see it coming. he put a lot of thought and detail into this special date.

it was valentine's day 2003, i was about 4 months pregnant with jordyn. at that time our life was pretty stressful. jamil was working a full time job with not so good benefits and working three small part time jobs on the side. jamil has always worked super hard to provide for our family so that i can stay home with our kids. one of his part time jobs at the time was serving tables at a restaurant. so of course he was scheduled to work that valentine's weekend! i was sad that we wouldn't be able to do a date night. but little did i know he had planned a surprise for me.

it was a friday morning and i was at a ladie's bible study. as we were wrapping up our study, one of the ladies who was hosting the study was closing in prayer and began to pray for me and for the baby (jordyn!) i was carrying. she also prayed for my husband. she closed the prayer and then began to read a sweet letter to me that was written by my husband.

in the letter he shared his affection for me and then told me that he had a surprise planned for me that day. i was handed a rose and sent on my way home with directions to go home and get dressed up. when i arrived at our house there were balloons decorating my front porch. another letter inside of our house said that childcare was arranged for josh and that i was suppose to get ready to go on a lunch date. i would be told of the location later. after josh was settled in at my mother in law's house, i received a note from her that was from jamil giving me directions to my destination although i didn't know where it was. as i started driving, jamil told me to meet me at an italian restaurant. when i arrived, he was there waiting for me with a dozen roses. we then had a special lunch date together.

even though i don't have any pictures to share, (i probably have the letters somewhere), i will always remember what time and thought jamil put into that special date.


little did he know five years and 3 kids later i would have a surprise for him...

my surprise to him...

i had the "baby itch" for a long time, when jamil told me that he was ready to consider adding a fourth child to our family. i was so excited that we were finally on the same page! in january 2008, i had every sign, symptom and feeling of being pregnant. but to my sadness, i was not. just one month later, i was barely late, and decided to take another pregnancy test. i thought that i could be pregnant but after going through such immense disappointment the previous month, i didn't wan to get my hopes up. when the test showed a very faint positive, i was so thrilled. but because of that faint (really faint) line, i didn't get my hopes up too high. after taking a few more tests and seeing the positive sign, i knew i was. i never keep secrets like this. i am the most loyal person if someone shares their secret with me. but when it comes to my own, i can not contain myself.

i received the positive tests just a few days before valentine's day. so i decided to surprise jamil in a big way. i bought him a new bible and then found several scripture verses that had to do with having babies, new life and multiplying! i cut out little hearts and wrote the scripture reference on each one and stuck them inside of the bible like bookmarks. i gave him the bible. he read the verses and kind of just looked at me and said, i know, i know you want another baby, i guess that is what you are trying to say. after he said that i handed him his own copy that he got when i was pregnant with josh, of "she's having a baby and i am having a breakdown". and that is when he got it and said/asked, "you're pregnant?" he didn't really believe me until i showed him all three positive pregnancy tests, even though they were faint lines, i reminded him a line is a line, it doesn't matter what intensity of color!! you can also go here to read about it, when i posted it two years ago!!


that brings me to this year, i am pretty sure that there will be no surprises from either of us. i know for sure that i am not planning one this year, maybe next year though ;) we have plans to go out tonight on a "shopping date", but i just heard that they are calling for more snow again in charoltte, so we will see.

happy valentine's day and thanks so much for sharing these special memories with me!