Couple time

Photo of my kids sleeping soundly

outside Beijing Foot Spa

my dear husband

  
    It was already past ten in the evening and after putting my kids to sleep and changed and climbed to bed, sleep still did not find me. I sat on the bed watching my four kids sleeping soundly while each of them curled like a shrimp under their own comforters. I always kiss and nuzzle them even as they sleep, whispering that I love them. They always smell of shampoo and rain. Often they will move and acknowledge with a sleepy smile. Tonight, I won't be sleeping beside my baby which is my permanent place but instead I'll be sleeping together again with my husband on a mattress that originally belongs to my son Andrew which is laid down on the floor. I missed the nightly sweet embrace that my husband and I used to have by the time we settled in our bed. We haven't been sleeping together in one bed for almost half a year. My kids sleep in our room and shares the bed with us.

    It's a ritual for Andre and I, lying in bed or just sitting on it, to talk quietly about the highlights of the day, sharing tomorrow's plan and schedule with each other, all the while talking in hushed whispers so baby Andrei will not be disturbed. We surf the Net together or individually on our laptop for a short time and finally settle into watching DVD movie. When that happens, we know sleep is near. But often, sleep still didn't find us. So it really is not long before we find ourselves going to our favorite spa to pamper our tired bodies.

     We love going to Beijing Foot Spa which is located at IL Terrazzo Mall, Tomas Morato. They've got a large team of well-trained masseuses who renders a vigorous foot and body massage. Their foot massage is so good and it is by far the best foot massage we ever had from our Spa hopping leisure time.

     More than the pleasure of the relaxing massage though is the joy of each other's presence and company that I savor. We both look forward to doing this together. While in the car on our way home, we talk and dream together. That is our favorite thing to do and we really go wild in that department. Why limit God when he can give all? What joy! Dreaming limitlessly allows us to take on wings and by heaven's name, do we enjoy the flight. My husband shares his own childhood memories with me and I know all these little stories behind his scar on the hand, on the leg that he got from biking with an old friend. We love exchanging stories from our childhood memories. 

      Finally and forever, this much I warmly hold on to: when the time came that we are both old and grey, when deep lines have settled in our faces and we have both lost our youth, I know we will continue to have and enjoy our quiet conversations as well as frequent quiet "date" nights. We will continue to hold hands and talk and live and love and that will be enough. As early as now it makes my heart do little pirouettes to know that far, far away into the future, way beyond our golden years when our children and grandchildren are all grown up and have lives on their own, and when we naturally don't have our crazy and busy schedules, it will again be down  to just the two of us. The prospect did not scare me because I know the hand I hold belongs to a man I truly enjoy talking to and being with, and that the ties that bind us and all the moments that will lead up to that were, in one way or another, reinforced by the many little quiet "dates" we had. For this particular phase in young, married life, this little pockets of time are what nurture and enrich us most.