Here are some of the things Barry does and has done for me which have blown me away.
First a note -- I am a morning person. My high energy level is in the morning and I can get all kinds of stuff done then. By four in the afternoon I am visibly starting to wilt and I'm hopeless, for the most part, after dinner. Barry is a night person. He is comfortable going to bed around midnight or so and often sleeps in until 9 or 10.
Noticing this, he decided to be the one to do the dinner dishes. Can you believe that? I wake up to a spotless kitchen every morning. Because he gets up after I do, he quietly makes the bed, and he has become very good at it!
Because of who he is, we have guests from many places, often with very little notice (try ten minutes at eight on a Monday morning a few weeks ago!). We have all vinyl flooring which looks good all the time (Praise the Lord!) and so when the crunch is on, Barry vacuums the house and I do the dusting and picking up after Chris and we can have this place pretty spotless and nice in about half an hour.
When he is working on his research or writing a paper, it demands tremendous concentration. Now, when I am doing research or editing a paper (or writing one), I concentrate fiercely -- and I use that term on purpose, because I get it all straight in my head and then I sit down and go start to finish with at least a section. Interrupt me at your own peril. I don't mean to be that way, but I can't seem to change that part of me.
Barry, however, is different. He can be concentrating on something, or working out some equations, and if I say "Barry?", he will stop, turn around, and I have his full attention. If I say something like "I don't mean to interrupt you...." his response almost invariably will be "You are not the interruption, you are the main attraction!"
When he accepted a job teaching astronomy at the New Hope Observatory he made it clear to the other people that if he felt it was interrupting home life he would resign.
Last Dec. 10th he gave a public presentation of The Christmas Star for about 500 people. Afterward one of his astronomy students who was there came up and said to me "I had to meet this woman who was Barry's wife! He talks so highly of you."
God comes first in his life, but he prays for me daily. Next to God, I am the most important thing to him.
How can a woman NOT respond to that kind of treatment?
He always has time for me. His arms are always open to me. He is unfailingly kind to me, and gentle. He makes sure the water bottle next to my bed is full, and, knowing my body literally 'turns off' and I get cold in the evenings, makes sure the electric blanket is on for me. He looks for things to do for me. He cuts a fresh rose from the garden when the roses are in bloom and has it in a bud vase near the computer here. He will cuddle me to sleep and then quietly get up to do his own work at the computer until he gets tired, around midnight or one in the morning.
And my response? I'll work my silly head off for this man, joyfully. If he wants it, and I can get it or do it or cook it, I do.
Oh yeah, and he changes the diapers on our 22 year old retarded son and that, my friends, is true love.
