Relationship rapprochement...

We had an example of rapprochement here recently. The dictionary defines this French word as, "an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations." It all began when one of the knobs on our relatively new stove came off in Chris' hand when he was cooking.

He tried to repair the knob, but some little mechanism that makes it attach to the stove had become damaged. The very next day he took it into town and bought a replacement. I was delighted that he acted so quickly. That is, until I saw the new one he had purchased.

It was black. The existing knobs on the stove looked more like this:

I knew that the new knob would work perfectly. I also knew that it being black when the rest of the knobs were white (as is the stove) would bother me. A lot. I wasn't sure if the store didn't carry white knobs, or if my dear husband just wasn't paying attention to detail when he bought one that didn't match, but I was on the horns of a dilemma. If I said something about it, I risked hurting his feelings and seeming ungrateful. But if I didn't, I'd have to look at a mismatched knob every day. I certainly didn't want to insult him, after all, he'd gone out of his way to promptly rectify and repair the damaged stove.

I decided to be grateful and gracious. I thanked him for going out and getting a new knob. But I think my eyes twitched a little as I pictured what my pretty new stove would look like.

A while later I saw him with some tools, and both the new and broken knobs. "What are you doing?" I asked. "The store didn't have any white knobs, but all the old one needed was the inside portion, so I am putting the new inside bit into the old one so they will all still match." The look of relief on my face must have been comical, because he chuckled. "You didn't really think I'd put a black knob on your white stove, did you?"  I nodded. "And you wouldn't have even said anything, would you?" I shook my head. He gave me a hug.  Rapprochement in action.