Birthday Surprise

A few days ago my husband gave me quite the surprise.  He told me that for my birthday he was taking me and the girls to the States for a bit of time away and shopping.  I thought he was joking.  Now, in order to understand this, you need to know our relationship a bit.  In our marriage, he is a saver, and I would say quite frugal.  He has a very hard time spending money, and has a hard time when I do.  I, on the other hand, am the spender.  And maybe more specifically, an emotional spender.   If I have a hard day, or feel stressed(including our finances), I like to spend.  Now I know that there is more to it than that, and believe me, God is trying to work on that in me, but that's the simple layout.  Now Stan appreciates that what I buy often makes our life more comfortable, and the girls and I do need new clothes now and then, but it's still difficult for him, and I admit that often I am not careful and have a very hard time staying in budget. So because of all this history, it is incredibly special to me that he is doing this.  So, not only does this mean an afternoon of shopping, but it also means a night at a hotel, and several meals out.  Not a cheap surprise.  But man, am I loving it.  Today I made a list of things I'll be looking at buying.  Of course the shopping is one of the best things for me, but Chasadya is very excited about the hotel and pool.  Its really neat to see her excitement.  I don't think Stan realized how much we'll all enjoy this( well, maybe he won't enjoy the shopping so much!).  I'm feeling incredibly loved right now.  I hope I can make him see how much this means to me.  He hit the nail on the head in realizing my love languages, and I so much appreciate how he decided to do this, especially when its not an easy thing for him to do.  I'm looking forward to a great family weekend.