Here's My Response To You ♡

To my Lila, my wife, my babi, my love, my forever,

Happy first monthsary, my Lila. ♡

I read everything you wrote, and honestly, I don't even know how to properly explain what I felt while reading it. I kept going back to your words because knowing that you took the time to write all of that for me means so much more than I could ever put into one reply. You didn't just give me a message, you gave me a piece of your heart, and I want you to know that I didn't take a single word of it for granted.

I really sat there reading it and thinking about us, about everything that has happened between us, and about how much you have become a part of my life in such a short amount of time. It's honestly crazy to me how someone can slowly become such an important part of your everyday life without you even noticing when it happened. One day you're just talking to someone, and then eventually you're checking your phone hoping it's them, thinking about them randomly throughout the day, wanting to tell them every little thing, and feeling happier just because they're there.

And somehow, that person became you.

My Lila, thank you.

Thank you for loving me the way you do. Thank you for being patient with me, for understanding me, for choosing me, and for continuing to stay even through the moments when things aren't always easy between us. Thank you for all the little things you do that you probably don't even realize I notice. Thank you for every conversation, every random message, every little update about your day, every laugh, every reassurance, every time you make me smile without even trying. Thank you for simply being there.

Thank you for giving me your time when you could be doing other things. Thank you for listening to me when I have something on my mind. Thank you for letting me talk about random things that probably don't even make sense sometimes. Thank you for allowing me to be comfortable around you. Thank you for letting me see the different sides of you and for trusting me enough to show me parts of yourself that you might not show everyone.

I don't think I say thank you enough.

Sometimes I get so used to having you there that I forget to stop and think about how lucky I actually am. I don't ever want that to happen. I don't want your presence in my life to become something I simply expect. I want to always appreciate you. I want to always remember that having someone like you is something worth being grateful for.

When you said that I feel like a cozy home to you, that honestly stayed in my mind. Because you are that for me too, Lila. You have become one of the places where my heart feels comfortable. You're someone I can talk to about random things, someone I want to tell things to, someone I look for when something happens during my day. There's something about you that makes me want to stay. Even when we're just talking about the most random things, I still find myself thinking, I'm really happy that it's her I'm talking to.

And I really hope you know how much that means to me.

Because when I think of home, I don't think of a perfect place where nothing ever goes wrong. I think of somewhere you can be yourself. Somewhere you don't have to pretend. Somewhere you can be tired, happy, annoying, emotional, quiet, silly, or completely yourself and still know that you're accepted.

That's what I want us to be for each other.

I want you to be able to come to me without worrying that you have to be a certain version of yourself. You don't have to always be happy around me. You don't have to always know what to say. You don't have to hide when you're having a bad day. You don't have to pretend that everything is okay if it isn't.

You can just be my Lila.

And I will still love you.

And when you asked me to believe you when you say that you really do love me with all the love you can offer, please believe me when I say that I do. I believe you. I may not always know how to respond perfectly, and sometimes I might overthink things or need reassurance, but I see your love. I feel it in the things you say and in the things you do.

I know that your love isn't something I should ever treat casually, and I promise that I appreciate it more than I probably say.

I believe you when you tell me you love me.

I believe you when you tell me you want me.

I believe you when you tell me you're staying.

And I hope that over time, I'll become better at showing you that I believe you instead of letting my thoughts convince me otherwise.

Your letter reminded me of something really important: we're still learning each other. We're still figuring out how to love each other better, how to understand each other's feelings, how to communicate when something is wrong, and how to make each other feel safe.

And I don't expect us to have everything figured out already.

We're only at the beginning.

There are still so many things about each other that we're going to discover. There are still so many conversations we're going to have, so many situations we're going to experience together, so many things we're going to learn about each other.

And honestly, I don't want to rush any of it.

I want to slowly learn you.

I want to know what makes you happiest. I want to know what makes you nervous. I want to know the little things that make your day better. I want to know what you think about when you're quiet. I want to know the things you don't always say out loud. I want to know what kind of future you imagine for yourself.

I want to know all the little details that make you you.

And I want you to know mine too.

I want you to know me when I'm happy, when I'm stressed, when I'm quiet, when I'm being stupid, when I'm overthinking, when I'm excited, and when I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling.

I want us to keep becoming more comfortable with each other.

I know there are times when we misunderstand each other. I know there are times when I might make you feel like you need to explain yourself or reassure me more than you should have to. And I want to say I'm sorry for those moments, my love.

I'm sorry for the times when my overthinking gets in the way.

I'm sorry for the times when I don't communicate properly.

I'm sorry for the times when I might make something bigger in my head than it actually is.

And I'm sorry for any moment where I made you feel like your love wasn't enough.

Because it is.

You are enough.

Your love is enough.

You don't have to keep proving it to me.

I'm still learning too. I'm learning how to trust more, how to communicate better, how to tell you what I feel instead of letting my thoughts get the better of me. I'm learning how to be a better partner for you, not because you asked me to become someone else, but because I genuinely want to become someone who loves you in the way you deserve.

And just like you said in your letter, I don't want our arguments or misunderstandings to be something that makes us forget how much we love each other.

If we ever have difficult days, I want us to remember that we're not enemies.

We're two people who care about each other and are still learning how to understand one another.

I want to be able to say sorry when I'm wrong.

I want to listen when you're hurt.

I want to understand instead of immediately getting defensive.

I want you to be able to tell me when something bothers you without being scared that I'll stop loving you because of it.

I want us to be able to have hard conversations and still know that the love is there afterward.

Because loving someone isn't just about the easy moments.

It's about learning how to stay kind during the difficult ones too.

Thank you for telling me that you'll always be here.

But, Lila, I want you to know that you don't have to carry everything alone either.

If you have bad days, I'm here.

If you're tired, I'm here.

If you're upset, I'm here.

If something is bothering you and you just need someone to listen, I'm here.

If you have something you're excited about and you want to tell someone immediately, I want to be that person too.

If something good happens, tell me.

If something bad happens, tell me.

If something random happens and you just want to yap about it for twenty minutes, tell me.

I want to hear it.

I don't only want to be there for the happy version of you.

I want to know you completely — the happy you, the tired you, the emotional you, the silly you, the quiet you, the stubborn you, the excited you, the sleepy you, the random you, and every little version of you in between.

I want you to know that you never have to feel like you're "too much" for me.

Your feelings aren't a burden.

Your stories aren't annoying.

Your random thoughts aren't meaningless.

Your yapping isn't something I want to silence.

Because they're all pieces of you, and I love getting those pieces.

And thank you for all the memories we've already made in such a short amount of time.

It might only be our first month, but somehow you've already given me so many moments that I know I'll remember.

The random conversations.

The little jokes.

The things we tell each other.

The moments where we make each other laugh.

The silly things we send.

The moments where one of us says something completely random and somehow it becomes something we remember.

Even the little misunderstandings we've had.

All of those things are part of us now.

They're little pieces of our story, and I'm grateful for every single one.

I know one month isn't a lifetime, but I'm grateful that we get to start building that lifetime one moment at a time.

And I hope this isn't the only monthsary letter we ever write to each other.

I hope there are many more.

I hope one day we're celebrating another month and laughing about how different we were during our first.

I hope we're able to look back at these messages and remember how excited we were about every little milestone.

I hope we get to celebrate birthdays together, holidays together, random achievements together, and all the tiny milestones that nobody else would understand the importance of.

I want to make memories with you that don't need to be perfect to be special.

I want the random days.

The boring days.

The days where we're just talking.

The days where we're both busy but still find a little time for each other.

Those are the moments I want too.

I want more days with you, Lila.

More conversations.

More laughs.

More random pictures.

More "good morning" and "good night" messages.

More moments where we don't even realize how much time has passed because we're too busy talking to each other.

More memories that we'll eventually look back on and laugh about.

More little things that only we understand.

More days where I get to call you my love and know that you're still choosing me too.

And I especially want to thank you for the way you make me feel loved.

Sometimes I don't think you realize just how much your little actions affect me.

A simple message from you can completely change my mood.

Seeing you excited about something makes me happy.

Hearing you talk about the things you like makes me want to listen even if I know absolutely nothing about what you're talking about.

Even your random yapping has become something I genuinely love because it's you.

I love hearing what goes on inside your head.

I love knowing the little things about your day.

I love when you tell me stories.

I love when you randomly send me something because it reminded you of me.

I love when you let me into your world.

I love the fact that I get to know a side of you that not everyone gets to see.

And I hope you know that I treasure that.

So when you tell me that I am your person, I hope you know that you are mine too.

You are the person I want to share things with.

You're the person I want to make happy.

You're the person whose feelings matter to me.

You're the person I want to protect, support, and care for in whatever ways I can.

You're the person I want to tell about the little things.

You're the person I want to celebrate with.

You're the person I want to reassure when you're scared.

And most importantly, you're someone I don't want to lose simply because things get difficult sometimes.

I want to keep choosing you, Lila.

Not because we're perfect.

Not because we'll never argue.

Not because we'll always understand each other immediately.

Not because everything between us will always be easy.

But because even through all of that, you're still the person I want.

I want you.

And I hope you never have to question that.

I want to keep learning you.

I want to keep discovering little things about you that I didn't know before.

I want to see you grow and become the person you're meant to be.

I want to be there when you achieve the things you've been dreaming about.

I want to celebrate your little wins and your biggest accomplishments.

I want to remind you that I'm proud of you even when you don't feel proud of yourself.

I want to be the person who cheers for you even when you're not sure if you can do something.

And I want you to do the same for me.

I don't want us to hold each other back.

I want us to grow beside each other.

I want to see you become happier, stronger, more confident, and more yourself.

And I hope that when you look beside you during those moments, I'll still be there cheering for you.

And if someday you look back at this first monthsary, I hope you remember that this was the beginning of something I genuinely treasured.

I hope you remember how much I cared about you, even when I didn't always know how to express it properly.

I hope you remember that behind every "I love you" I gave you was a heart that genuinely meant it.

I hope you remember that I was grateful for you.

I hope you remember that I saw you.

Not just as my girlfriend, not just as my wife, not just as my favorite person, but as you.

The person I got to know.

The person I got attached to.

The person whose presence became important to me.

The person who somehow became a part of my everyday life.

Thank you for choosing me, my Lila.

Thank you for trusting me with your heart.

Thank you for letting me become part of your life.

Thank you for giving me your time, your patience, your affection, your stories, your laughter, your reassurance, and even your little worries.

Thank you for being my safe place while also allowing me to be yours.

Thank you for staying.

Thank you for trying.

Thank you for understanding me even when I'm not always easy to understand.

Thank you for giving me chances to do better.

Thank you for believing in us.

And thank you for writing that letter to me.

I hope you know how much it means to me to receive something so sincere from you.

I will keep your words close to my heart because they remind me that what we have is something worth taking care of.

My Lila, I love you.

I really, really do.

And I know sometimes those three words don't feel like enough to explain everything that's inside my heart.

Because "I love you" doesn't explain how happy I feel when I see your name.

It doesn't explain how much I enjoy listening to you.

It doesn't explain how much I care about how your day went.

It doesn't explain how much I want you to be okay.

It doesn't explain how proud I am of you.

It doesn't explain how grateful I am that you chose me.

It doesn't explain how much I treasure the memories we've already made.

And it definitely doesn't explain how excited I am for all the memories we haven't made yet.

I love you beyond the cute names, beyond the sweet messages, beyond the pictures and jokes and little moments.

I love you for who you are.

I love the person behind everything.

And I hope as we continue together, I can show you more and more that my love isn't just something I say.

I want it to be something you can feel through the way I treat you.

Through the way I listen to you.

Through the way I remember the little things.

Through the way I stay beside you.

Through the way I support you.

Through the way I apologize when I'm wrong.

Through the way I continue learning.

Through the way I continue choosing you.

I want my actions to eventually make you think, "I don't have to wonder if she loves me. I know she does."

That's what I want to give you.

A love that doesn't make you constantly question where you stand.

A love where you can feel safe being yourself.

A love where you know that even when we have difficult moments, we're still working toward each other.

A love that keeps growing instead of staying exactly where it started.

And I know we're still young and we still have so much life ahead of us, but that doesn't make what I feel for you any less real.

Right now, in this moment, you're someone I genuinely love and genuinely care about.

And I'm grateful that I get to experience this chapter of my life with you.

So once again,

Happy first monthsary, my wife. ♡

Here's to our first month.

To everything we've already been through.

To everything we've learned about each other.

To every laugh.

To every conversation.

To every random moment.

To every misunderstanding we worked through.

To every reassurance.

To every "I love you."

To every memory we already have.

And to all the memories we haven't made yet.

I don't know exactly what every day ahead of us will look like, but I know one thing for sure:

I want more of them with you.

More months.

More memories.

More laughs.

More late-night conversations.

More random yaps.

More pictures.

More little updates about your day.

More stupid jokes.

More moments where we're laughing at something nobody else would understand.

More "I miss yous."

More "I love yous."

More growing together.

More learning each other.

More supporting each other.

More choosing each other.

More moments where we can look at each other and think, "I'm really glad it's you."

And hopefully, someday, we'll look back at this little letter and realize that this was only the beginning of everything we still had ahead of us.

Maybe we'll laugh at the way we talked.

Maybe we'll laugh at the things we used to worry about.

Maybe we'll remember the little things that felt so important at the time.

But I hope one thing never changes.

I hope we never stop appreciating each other.

I hope we never stop saying thank you.

I hope we never stop communicating.

I hope we never stop making each other laugh.

I hope we never stop being curious about each other.

And most importantly, I hope we never stop choosing each other.

My Lila, thank you for being you.

Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for letting me love you.

Thank you for giving me a place in your heart.

Thank you for making this first month something I'll always remember.

You mean so much to me, more than I can probably explain in one message.

I love you so much, my Lila.

Thank you for being my person, my comfort, my favorite girl, my babi, my wife, and my home.

Happy first monthsary, my love. ♡

Here's to us.

Here's to our little story.

Here's to the beginning.

And here's to every chapter that comes after this one.

I don't know exactly where every chapter will take us, but I know who I want beside me while I read them.

You.

And I also want you to know that reading your PDF made me realize how many little things about us I never want to take for granted. Sometimes we get so caught up in our everyday conversations that we don't stop to appreciate the fact that there is another person out there who genuinely wants to know how our day went, what we're thinking about, what made us laugh, and what has been sitting on our minds.

I want to keep being that person for you. I want you to feel like you can tell me about the smallest detail of your day without ever thinking that it isn't important enough. If you want to yap about something random, yap to me. If you found something funny, send it to me. If something made you happy, let me celebrate it with you. If something hurt you, let me listen. I don't want to only know the big parts of your life. I want to know the little parts too.

I love the thought that somewhere along the way, our relationship became filled with tiny things that belong only to us. The way we talk to each other, the names we call each other, the random jokes, the little updates, the silly moments, and even the conversations that start with absolutely nothing and somehow turn into something we'll remember. Those things might seem ordinary, but they're exactly the things that make our relationship feel like ours.

Your message also made me think about how much I want to keep showing up for you. Not only when I have the perfect words, but especially when I don't. I want to learn how to communicate my feelings more clearly instead of expecting you to understand everything I'm thinking. I want to learn how to reassure you without hesitation, how to listen without immediately trying to defend myself, and how to make sure you know that your feelings matter to me.

I know there will still be things we need to learn about each other. There will be moments when we misunderstand a message, moments when one of us is tired, moments when we're both stubborn, and moments when we don't immediately know how to fix something. But I don't see those things as reasons to love each other less. I see them as reminders that we're two different people learning how to build something together.

So if we ever have one of those difficult days, I hope we remember this version of us. The version that chose to write long messages for each other. The version that gets excited over little things. The version that wants to celebrate one month together. The version that still gets butterflies over a sweet message and still wants to tell each other everything.

I want to protect that part of us. I want to protect the softness between us. I want us to always have a place where we can put our pride down, be honest, say sorry, laugh again, and find our way back to each other.

And Lila, I hope you know that I don't just love the idea of you. I love the real you. The girl who has random thoughts, the girl who tells stories, the girl who sends little things, the girl who can be soft and silly and serious, the girl who has her own dreams, worries, habits, and little quirks. I don't want a perfect version of you. I want the person you actually are.

I want to keep discovering things about you that I don't know yet. I want there to be moments months from now where you tell me something and I think, "I never knew that about you," and then I get to love that new little piece of you too.

I want to know the stories from your past, the things you dream about for your future, the little things that make you feel safe, the things that make you excited, and even the things you sometimes struggle to put into words. I want to understand you instead of simply assuming I already do.

And I want you to have that same freedom with me. I want you to keep discovering me too. I want to become someone you can know more deeply as time passes, not someone who stays exactly the same. I want us to grow individually while still growing beside each other.

When I imagine all the months that could come after this one, I don't only imagine the big romantic moments. I imagine the ordinary ones too. I imagine us talking about our days, laughing over something stupid, sending each other random things, checking in when we're busy, encouraging each other when something feels difficult, and celebrating things that other people might not even understand.

I want those ordinary moments because eventually, those are the moments that become a life. A lifetime isn't made from one giant perfect moment. It's made from thousands of small ones that slowly become a story. And if I get to choose, I want as many of those little moments as possible to have you in them.

Your PDF wasn't just something I read and then put away. It made me stop and appreciate what we have right now. It reminded me that our first month is something worth celebrating because it is the first page of our story that we get to look back on together. And even though we don't know exactly what every next page will say, I'm excited that we get to write them instead of having them already written for us.

So thank you for giving me something so heartfelt to respond to. Thank you for making me feel loved through your words. Thank you for trusting me enough to share your heart with me. And thank you for reminding me that sometimes the simplest thing I can do is simply tell you how much you mean to me.

I hope this response gives even a little bit of that love back to you. I know I could write another hundred paragraphs and still probably find more things I want to say, because there will always be another memory to mention, another thank-you to give, another reason to tell you I love you.

If your message was your way of giving me a piece of your heart, then I want this response to be my way of giving a piece of mine back to you.

You are loved, you are appreciated, and you are chosen. ♡

I love you, my Lila. Happy first monthsary, my love.
Mahal na mahal kita, palagi. ♡