How he says Thank You

When Husband buys me a gift, he puts thought in to it. I rarely get just anything he passes at WalMart cause it's the day before (insert holiday here) and he needs something. Even IF he does go out the day before, he still shops till he finds the perfect thing.
For the Christmas before our Disney trip in 2006, he gave me the perfect Mickey watch (that I lost at Disney, of course!) The Christmas after his sister died, he gave me a ring with an amethyst shaped like a heart, to tell me how much he loved me. No words, just a ring.
My point being, he thinks. And this Christmas, he thought hard. Armed with a credit card and the internet, he was looking for something to tell me Thank You. Something that I could look at every day and know how much he appreciates all I do here for him. He found it.
Originally the gift was shipped to my parent's house. It was supposed to be there by Christmas, wrapped by my parents and waiting under the tree for me. It didn't get there until well after we left to come back down to Louisiana. Today, I finally got it. Carefully re-packaged by my dad, the gift arrived safe and sound.
Shaking hands reached for the scissors to cut the tape. Little hands anxiously grabbed the box to see just what Daddy sent to Mommy. Nervously, I opened the box to find... another box. Opening box number two I see an invoice that says "army wife, black velvet". Now, I know I'm not the only person who sees neon pictures of Elvis when the phrase "black velvet" pops up! A little worried now, I carefully flip the framed picture over.
This was no neon Elvis. This was a beautiful picture for me, an Army Wife. Entitled, Army Wife Poem, it reads:

The good Lord was creating a model for Army wives and was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared. She said: “Lord, you seem to be having a lot of trouble with this one. What’s wrong with the standard model?”
The Lord replied: “Have you seen the specs on this order? She has to be completely independent, possess the qualities of both father, and mother, be a perfect hostess to four or forty with an hour’s notice, run on black coffee, handle every emergency imaginable without a manual, be able to carry on cheerfully, even if she is pregnant and has the flu, and she must be willing to move to a new location ten times in seventeen years. And oh, yes, she must have six pairs of hands.”
The angel shook her head, “Six pairs of hands? No way.”
The Lord continued, “ Don’t worry, we will make other Army wives to help her. And we will give her an unusually strong heart so it can swell with pride in her husband’s achievements, sustain the pain of separations, beat soundly when it is overworked and tired, and be large enough to say, “I understand’ when she doesn’t, and say ‘I love you,’ regardless.”
“Lord,” said the angel, touching his arm gently, “Go to bed and get some rest. You can finish tomorrow.”
“I can’t stop now,” the Lord said, “I am so close to creating something unique. Already this model heals herself when she is sick, can put up six unexpected guests for the weekend, wave goodbye to her husband from a pier, a runway, or a depot, and understand why it’s important that he leave.”
The angel circled the model of the Army wife, looked at it closely and sighed, “It looks fine, but it’s too soft.”
“She might look soft,” replied the Lord, “but she has the strength of a lion. You would not believe what she can endure.”
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the Lord’s creation. “There’s a leak,” she announced. “Something is wrong with the construction. I am not surprised that it has cracked. You are trying to put too much into this model.”
The Lord appeared offended at the angel’s lack of confidence. “What you see is not a leak,” He said. “It’s a tear.”
“A tear” What is it there for?” asked the angel.
The Lord replied, “It’s for joy, sadness, pain, disappointment, loneliness, pride, and dedication to all the values that she and her husband hold dear.”
“You are a genius!” exclaimed the angel.
The Lord looked puzzled and replied, “I didn’t put it there.”

Thank you, Honey. I'm glad to do my part, sacrifices and all, and be your Army Wife.