No matter who you are, where you come from, or what you believe, I think we can all agree on something—love.

Loving and being loved truly is life’s greatest happiness. Finding my soulmate in my soldier has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and not a day goes by where I’m not thankful that I met him.

My soldier is currently serving a year hardship tour in Korea. I am living and working, quite literally, across the world in San Francisco. A 16-hour time difference and thousands of miles of ocean stand between us and a date night, so we have become pretty creative in thinking of ways to keep a spark and a connection despite the distance.

Now I must admit, I’m a bit of a romantic and love mushy stuff as much as the next girl. So, when I found this book at my favorite card store in the city, I immediately picked up two.

What I Love About You is a 112-page, fresh way to say, I love you. Admittedly, I was a little nervous giving the book to my soldier and proposing my idea—to each write two pages a week and exchange books when he returns to the states for good at the end of the year.

I was relieved to see the excitement on my soldier’s face as I explained my proposition. I don’t know why I ever worried he would think the whole notion was silly—the guy is amazing and open to any of my silly date night, book club, and e-mail-a-day ideas while we’re rocking the long distance love. So, for the past few months, we both took some time out of each week to write a little bit of what we love about the other in our respective books.

I don’t always answer each question in order and often find myself skipping around to ones that spark memories. It’s been so much fun each week to pause and take time to be grateful that I have someone so special in my life.

The thing I love most about this book (and this whole experience) is that it forces us to step out of our daily routine and take a moment to appreciate one another, even if we are an ocean apart. It is a constant reminder to me why this is all worth it, the distance, the missing him, and not sure exactly what comes next.

Through it all, we have an amazing love. And I couldn’t ask for much more than that.

Here are some of my favorite questions in the book so far:

• I first knew I loved you when:
• One of my favorite relaxed and peaceful times with you was:
• Here’s something I’d never change about you:
• You taught me this about myself:
• If I knew one of us was going to disappear tomorrow, I’d want to tell you this today:

Even if you don’t pick up this book, I hope you take a little time each day to remind your loved one how much you treasure them, and simply thank them for being a part of your life!