Love doesn't come in a jewelry box, fresh roses or helicopter rides. Love shines through the grime and the crap. Love is in the bathroom. Let me explain.

I was dating my husband and was violently ill. The tile on the bathroom floor felt amazing on my hot skin so that was where I decided to nap. I woke up to Pedialyte, saltines and a pillow. I knew I loved that man from the fetal position on the bathroom floor. We got married and he couldn't believe I peed with the door open. I have two younger sisters and growing up, that was the only way to continue our conversation about who got to marry which N'Sync member. Now, I sit on the toilet as he takes out his contacts and we finalize the week's agenda. I can see him through the bathroom mirror and something so mundane suddenly makes me so happy. Our marriage became stronger when we realized the things the other wouldn't do. I can't do toilets. Pitiful, but my gag reflex kicks into overdrive. It's not pretty. Instead of resenting that, he straight up said, "I'll do the toilets. I know you hate them. You've got sinks." My love for him grew over the passing of a toilet brush. We had our first kid. We were new parents who had no idea what we were doing, but trying so hard to get everything right. In the middle of the night, it sounded like there was a seal in our baby's room. Croup. We turned our shower on hot and I sat in there holding our baby while my husband brought in boiling pans of water from the stove. In our new parent panic, in our unconditional love for this little baby, in our homemade steam room, love was there. We now have two kids and bathtime is over. He is handing me a towel while I hand him a dripping wet baby and I grab a diaper while he hands me a comb. It's like a weird dance we never knew we had memorized, and it's beautiful. Through late night sickness, tooth extractions, early morning potty training sessions, through all the grime and crap that happens in the bathroom, that's where I see love. Through that bathroom mirror I will watch him brush his teeth, teach our sons how to shave, get dressed for a date night and my love for him will grow... right there from the bathroom floor.