Noisy Animals and Submission

Today may be the day that my sweet husband regrets encouraging me to blog. There is something you must know about him. He is hard to sleep with. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask any male on our staff that has ever traveled with him. Initially, when the staff of Highpoint would go to conferences, Chris would offer to room with the newest male staff member. What a great way to get to know someone, right? That was a good idea until the lights went out and the snoring began. After a short while, the good stewardship of sharing a room was assigned to the most senior staff members.Two of Chris’s closest friends have tried to room with him on trips. I should have warned them. When the lights go out, you would swear that noisy animals were being eaten. On one such outing, a friend recorded the grotesque sounds on a voicemail and sent them to me. It is not just snoring, it is a disturbing display of unnatural noises. I have been asked, “How do you do sleep next to him, Karin?” My reply, “it must be love.”

Apparently, my love for Chris is greater than our children’s.

Initially, our angelic children would sleep soundly when our family occasionally had reason to stay in a hotel. Somewhere along the way, they became more aware of the abnormal circumstances to which they were being subjected. I can remember more than one night falling asleep praying that Mark and Annika would fall to sleep before the disturbing concerto began. Then there was the night where Mark and I took turns gently pelting pillows at Chris across the room trying to get him to roll over to bring a temporary reprieve from the commotion.This week, it comes full circle. After eighteen years of listening to noisy animals in my sleep, I have asked Chris to complete a sleep study. He is like most guys and assumes that he is fine and this is pointless. Pointless or not, he has agreed to go. He described it tonight as his ultimate act of submitting to one another. I never thought that trying to eliminate disturbing sleep habits would require submission on his part, but it that what it takes… I am all for it.