When I look across the room and see my husband, my heart still flutters a bit.  There is always something new, something exciting.  A plan.  A little spontaneity.  There's familiarity.  The comfort of each other's arms.  Habits, quirks, silliness.  And there's so much more.  Our little girls, for one.  We have been so blessed to have these amazing little people become a part of our lives life.

There's so much potential in every little happening.  I feel like even at 8 years together, we are still just at the beginning.  And I can't wait to see what all happens next.

We are also approaching hard times.  Mark will be deploying soon to Afghanistan.  I'm not to say when he's leaving, of course, but he is leaving.  Sooner than I'd like.  In his 6-12 months away, he'll miss a lot of time with the girls.  A lot of time with me.  It's a part of the job, I get that.  But it still makes me sad and anxious to consider the time he'll spend away.  The time I'll spend alone, raising our children in a foreign country.

I know that when he goes, I'll struggle a bit and then find my groove and have a system.  Last night as I was tucking Amaris in to bed, he was at the gym.  Cadence was in her crib.  Amaris begged for a story, so I started one.  And just as it began, Cadence got fussy.  So I set the book down and went to get her.  I laid her little swaddled body next to Amaris in bed, and Amaris was thrilled.  She immediately put her arms around her little sister and cuddled her close.  We read three stories last night that way.  With Amaris picking up her head periodically to look at Cadence's face and kiss her cheek.  Cadence fell asleep there.  Amaris didn't want me to take her away.  It was truly the sweetest moment I've had with the girls so far.  And I thought to myself, "This'll be tradition.  We'll do this every night."

So little about this life is simple.  So few things are easy or obvious or common.  It's lucky that we have so much love under one roof.  Even if there's bickering, yelling, whatever going on from time to time.  Even if it's not blatantly apparent to "everyone else".  We are so fortunate.  We are so blessed.