For my Husband, on our anniversary...

I know I talk about my husband.
I have talked about our rough patch.
I have talked about our discussions.
Unfairly perhaps...because it only comes up in the context of  my weight loss.
So today on the eve of our 17th anniversary, I wanted to write something you don't know..
My husband has grown into a man I love and respect even more than the day I married him.
He was a green beret.
At my request, when he retired...instead of moving on to the inevitable blackwater position and making oodles of money overseas as a private security contractor...and missing that many more years together as a family.
He stayed here with us.
He became a Wackenhut security guard for 13 dollars an hour.
Because I asked him to.
Because our daughters asked him to.
You see, after spending the majority of our married life separated, I learned money isn't the most important thing. Time together is..
He is insulted daily.
He's called rent a cop, he is told about how he needs to go out and really experience life...like the 20 year old kid who spent two years in the army...talked down to by police officers. 
They have no idea who they are talking to.
They have no idea he was on an A team in special forces..
They just see a 40 year old man who walks with a limp after complications from giving his kidney to his little brother.
They don't know how he and his team, with the assistance from the kurds, held off an entire Iraqi division In northern Iraq while the army invaded from the south to kick off the war (If you want that story, read the book lords of chaos.)
They don't know he has scaled mountains the world over. And taught others to do the same.
That He did cold weather training in the north pole with the inuits, that he can make a radio out what he finds laying around..that he can identify just about any weapon that you put in front of him.
They don't know because he doesn't tell them
They just see a security guard.

He does it for us.
For his family.
It makes me love him more each day.
Now that is a real man.

So on our 17th anniversary.
I just want to say, I am a lucky woman.
I love you Tim.