I knew relationships before. Then I learned what it felt like to be loved.

For most of my adult life, I thought I had experienced love.

Looking back, I had experienced relationships. I had experienced money, status, attraction, disappointment, betrayal and being left.

But I had never experienced what I now understand love to be.

Then I met my husband.

Love Looks Surprisingly Ordinary

He opens my car door. Every night at our own dinner table, he pulls out my chair. He notices what I need. He smiles at me in the morning. He takes care of me.

He served 22 years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Senior Chief. He is strong, smart, disciplined, ridiculously handsome, and yes, the biceps deserve an honorable mention. 😆

But none of those things are why I know he loves me.

I know because he shows me.

For the first time in my life, I wasn't being impressed.

I was being cared for.

There is an enormous difference.

Love as Service

My husband is also a preacher. When we travel to expos for Heidi Callender® brands, we're technically there to sell products but sometimes I look over and he is praying with somebody.

I've watched people stand at our booth crying while he prays for them. Then they hug him. There is no sales pitch in that moment. There is nothing for him to gain.

He simply sees someone who needs love and gives it.

That's the man I married.

A New Family

I had already raised a daughter on my own. She's amazing. Strong. Smart. At 26, she's ready to take on the world with her cats and pilates. I'm so proud of her.

For a long time, I learned to depend on myself and she was my reason to never give up.

Then, in June 2024, I married a man who showed me that being strong and being cared for are not opposites.

I tell him all the time: “We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

And I mean it.

We have our whole lives ahead of us.