For V day, h gave me some flowers and a big batch of hope packaged in a little card. He thanked me for "waiting for him", said that he had things that he had to work on, this bad time had little to do with me and the kids. He thinks we are in a much better place than we were a year ago, he knows I've taken on a bigger load lately and he appreciates it. I thanked him, but didn't use the card to go into R talk.
I am proud of myself for being so patient. I never thought I would have been capable of it several months ago!