A Gift for Mom! 🤍

Dear husband,

Thank you. You are always picking up where I left off. Even when you only had two hours of sleep, you still get your work done during the day, do your part around the house, and spend time with the boys.

In these uncertain and desperate times, this is the consistency I need. 

I know sometimes I seem agitated, but I promise it’s not because of you. I’m frustrated with the situation. I miss my family, friends, and normalcy. This has nothing to do with you.

RELATED: To the Mom Carrying the Weight of the World: You’re Strong Enough

If anything, you are my normal, and sometimes because of that, you get the brunt of my frustration. 

You know when I need more wine, a shower, and a break. You know when I need you to clean up after dinner and do the laundry because I honestly have forgotten about it since we have all been living in our pajamas most of the days. 

When we run out of medicine, food, and any other necessities, you just go and get what we need (while wearing the mask I made you). You don’t even question whether it should be me or you who goes. You are perfectly fine with being the one exposed to protect all of us. 

RELATED: Dear Husband, I Need Us to Be a Team Now More Than Ever

You made sure the boys had presents for their birthdays and Easter. I may have set up their birthday celebrations at home, but you did the hard part. On Easter eve, I was stuck in bed under our 1-year-old, and my head was pounding. You relieved me so I could get some medicine and feel better. Afterward (with almost no sleep) you finished putting the boys’ Easter baskets together and hiding the eggs. 

You are my constant.

Are you perfect? Far from it, but you’re my puzzle piece. You fit with me perfectly. We have certainly had our ups and downs, but throughout it all, it’s been you and me. We have been through a lot in the past 10 years together. Our struggles have only made us stronger as a couple and as a team. 

RELATED: Dear Family, This is Going to Make Us Stronger Than Ever Before

It has never been your words that showed me you love me. It has always been your actions. It’s the little things, like sending me a sweet message, buying my favorite wine so I can relax, and always being my shoulder to cry on. It’s doing what needs to be done when I am completely and utterly burnt outall without me having to ask. Although this took time for us both to figure out, I believe we have a groove now. 

Thank you for being you.

You are exactly who I need right now when everything else is uncertain.

I love you.

Love,
Your ever so grateful wife

Previously published on the author’s blog

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Holly Dignen

Holly Dignen is a Stay-At-Home Mom of two boys. She is also one of three Kid's Event Chairpersons for her neighborhood community. She has her Master's degree in Elementary Education and several years of teaching under her belt. When she isn't spending time with her beautiful family, she is volunteering or writing.

Divorce Gave Me Something My Marriage Never Did

In: Marriage
Woman taking off wedding ring

It began the way many stories do: with certainty. I met him when I was 19, and I believed that meant something lasting. We built a life out of promises—marriage, three daughters, a red brick house meant to signal security. What I didn’t understand then was how control can hide inside comfort, and how love can become a performance that slowly erases you. He was never patient but always right, always sure. At first, I mistook that for confidence. Later, I saw it for what it was: control masked as calm. Little by little, I stopped deciding. I stopped offering...

Keep Reading

The Life I Love Was Built From the Life That Broke Me

In: Living, Marriage
Family of four

In my early- to mid-twenties, everything felt like it was unraveling. I was depressed, uninspired, dealing with health issues I didn’t fully understand, and carrying the weight of past trauma I didn’t yet have the language for. At the same time, I was wading through a dating pool that felt more like I was unintentionally starring in an episode of Punk’d, all while still carrying the scars of a serious relationship that ended in betrayal—cheating that didn’t just break my heart, but shattered my sense of trust in a way I wasn’t prepared for. For a while, I stayed there....

Keep Reading

The Hardest Part of Divorce Is Being Away from My Kids

In: Living, Marriage, Motherhood
Woman in driver's seat

I’ve written several times about how divorce has allowed me to find myself again, and how that version is even better than the one I was before I was married. All of that is still true. I am happier than I’ve ever been. More confident and sure of myself. I understand my emotions and how to handle myself when things get tough or scary. I am more grounded and calm than I’ve ever been. Truly, I have come out on top. I’ve received comments about how happy I look, how I’m “living my best life with kids only half the...

Keep Reading

Dear Daddy, I Wish You Could See Yourself As We Do

In: Living, Marriage
father with two young children

The side of my husband who is hardest on himself usually shows up late at night. The house is quiet, the kids are finally asleep, and the day has done what it always does—taken everything it could from both of us. That’s usually when it comes out. The voice in his head that tells him he’s not doing enough as a father. Not present enough. Not patient enough. Not good enough. He doesn’t say it lightly. He says it like someone confessing a truth he wishes wasn’t true. Like he’s already measured himself against some invisible standard of fatherhood and...

Keep Reading

To the Woman Who Was Betrayed

In: Living, Marriage
Woman looking off to the fog

He promised you a lifetime, a family, safety, and security. You carried life and brought it into this world for him. Even still, in the trenches of postpartum, he betrayed you. It was never your fault. This is something I’ve fought to tell myself every single day since the day I discovered my marriage was never meant to last. Because the truth is, betrayal is never about you; it’s about them, and the character flaws deep within they’d rather bury than face. He watched as you fought for your life after delivery while your tiny, premature newborn spent the first...

Keep Reading

10 Things I Wish I’d Known Before My Marriage Ended

In: Marriage
Divorce concept

I’m a year and a half into my still-husband filing for a divorce I didn’t see coming (but probably should have), and I’m here to say: hindsight doesn’t yield perfect vision, but it does bring clarity. While that clarity might not always make perfect sense, it does make processing it all a bit more tangible. Here are 10 things I wish I knew before my marriage ended–abruptly and unilaterally. Effort should feel mutual, not one-sided and minimal. The handmade birthday weekend itineraries year after year, the endless putting-him-on-a-pedestal, the desperate asks to go out on actual dates, the late-night research...

Keep Reading

Love Is Saying “I’m Still Here”

In: Marriage
Smiling couple in selfie

Some days don’t feel romantic at all. They feel like alarms going off too early, coffee gone cold, kids who need everything at once, and a to-do list that keeps growing no matter how much you check off. They feel like passing each other in the kitchen with tired eyes and half-finished sentences. They feel like wondering how it’s only Tuesday. And yet, somewhere in the middle of all that, there’s this quiet, steady thing holding it together. Not fireworks. Not big, sweeping moments. Just a simple, consistent choice. We’re still in this. Together. Marriage, at its core, isn’t built...

Keep Reading

No One Plans to Wear the “Scarlet Letter” of Divorce

In: Living, Marriage
Couple with backs to each other

Divorce often feels like the scarlet letter no one talks about. Some in our generation may call it “trendy”—particularly as women have become more independent and empowered—but whether it’s socially acceptable or not, it is still a label no woman enters marriage expecting to wear. Women are often self-sacrificing—sometimes to a fault. We give and give until our souls feel nearly drained. And in marriages marked by abuse, substance abuse, infidelity, inconsistency, or dishonesty, we still convince ourselves that if we just give a little more, love a little harder, try a little longer, something will change. Divorce is not...

Keep Reading

I Still Can’t Believe You’re Mine

In: Marriage
Man and woman dressed up dancing

I still can’t believe you’re mine. Lately, I’ve found myself reflecting on how far we’ve come—two babies, multiple moves, and the weight of a world that hasn’t always been kind. There were seasons when things felt uncertain. Seasons when growth hurt. Seasons when staying required more strength than leaving ever would have. I know not everyone believed we would make it this far. But it was always you. God was leading me to you long before I understood it. In ways I couldn’t see at the time, He was writing a story bigger than my fears, bigger than my doubts,...

Keep Reading

True Love Is Built In the Moments No One Sees

In: Marriage
Two pinkies hooked with wedding rings

There is nothing simple about raising a medically complex child. We carry emergency plans the way others carry wallets. Med lists are memorized. Hospital routes are second nature. We measure time in seizures, appointments, medication schedules, and recovery windows. Early Monday morning, after our 10-year-old autistic son was sedated for stitches following a seizure fall, he was sick. My husband held him upright while he vomited. I grabbed towels, trying to catch what I could. We moved in sync—no discussion, no drama, just instinct and practice. And I thought about our marriage. It isn’t glitz and glamour. It’s not candlelit...

Keep Reading