The Heroes Amongst Us

First there was Iron man. Then there was The Hulk, Hancock, Hell boy and now Batman. All of these Summer blockbusters have one thing in common- they are all about super-heroes. Although I want to see all of these movies, I’ve only seen one of them to date. I’m going to see Iron man with a friend soon so I’ll let you guess which superhero movie I’ve already seen.

There are the heroes in the movies and then the every day heroes amongst us that we often look past. I’ve got a superhero on my mind right now, but she isn’t any of those listed above. My hero is my wife, Becky. Let me tell you about her.

First off, I have to say that she is tough. I cannot tell you how many times I heard men talking about her while we were on our mission trip to the Mormons in Manti, Utah. She was severely pregnant, yet still out there on the streets witnessing and serving God. She was in pain, yet shrugged it off by telling me, “They’re worth it” referring to the Mormons to whom we were witnessing. Not only did she impress me, she impressed everyone who saw her.

Now, after given birth to our third child, she continues to impress me. She had to endure her third c-section, yet wanted to make sure that her pain medication was not going to negatively affect our baby boy. Guys, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but having a c-section is major surgery. They cut her open with a laser, dig around until they find the kidlett, pull him out by his little head, nicely set some of her organs on a table and clean a few things up. It is pretty weird seeing her uterus lying on an operating table while she is completely conscious. Of course she could not feel anything then, but even the thought of it could make a lesser woman freak out.

Once we got her and the little one home, she impresses me even more. For the first couple of nights, I have helped her with feeding our son during the night. Once she got the hang of it, she encouraged me to stay in bed because she really didn’t need my help any more. Wow, what a woman! I still get up with her from time to time, but for the most part, I have taken her up on her offer.

There have been a couple of nights where things did not go as smoothly as hoped. Our son wasn’t cooperating with our sleep/feed/sleep schedule and he decided to experiment with a no-sleep/feed/scream/sleep while feeding schedule. That’ll wear on you real quick. I’m a bit ashamed to reveal at what time I crawled out of bed, but Becky was already up. The baby was fed and sound asleep, the two older kids were in their room and I can hear Becky going over some of their phonics rules with them as they are reading through one of their books. That is when it hit me. The patience to do phonics in the morning after a hard, sleepless night? Holy contribution to the education of minors, Batman! I married my hero!

Today marks the 16th anniversary of our marriage. I knew I married the right one 16 years ago, but it is so cool to see God confirm that. Hard times allow us to see what is deep inside and after seeing how she responded to the difficulties of having our third child; I know that I married a true hero.

I love you, Becky.