Returning on a Jet Plane

Six days with Joe out of town is just about six days too long (even as I type that I think of the many, many who sacrifice months and years at a time for all of us... wow, the admiration and respect!)

Of course, I miss the extra hands and the help... the way he doesn't come in from his long day needing time off, but instead jumps right in to take care of all his girls... the little big things, like the way he almost never lets me do the dishes after I cook a meal. The way he doesn't seem to see the things that I didn't get to, yet loves hearing about how we did choose to spend our hours instead. He truly makes me feel like I have one of the hardest and most important jobs in the world.

But more than all of that, I just miss him.

I miss us working as a team to bathe up, brush up, story up, pray up, love up our girls. Then when their lights go out, save the Christmas twinkles from Hope's room, and their sweet voices turn to steady breathing... we finally really look at each other. It's late in the evening, but it's our time to reconnect. Occasionally we watch a movie, but it's rare that there's television. We may read or fold laundry or catch up the budget. He may even have to do more work, but that's why we put his desk in our bedroom so that as he's typing away I can be near him no matter how late it gets. In fact, that's often when I catch up on e-mails or blogging. My favorite is when we lay up in our bed and talk and talk... and not just because that's when I get the best foot rubs. :)

Certainly we have evenings when things go later than usual with the girls. Evenings when his work calls him away for longer than we'd like. Evenings when we're so tired that all we can do is crash or, worse yet, evenings when we let something stupid get between us.

But I want the girls to know that their Daddy and Mommy are a team, and that we love God and one another first and did so even before we were given three times what we began with. Our prayer is that this same thing will hold true long after they've moved on to make their marks on the world. That they will look to marry partners they respect, enjoy, and treasure. Men who will sacrifice for them and they, in turn, will make sacrifices too... all while doing their best to see to the heart of what God wants for their life together. Both when those decisions are easy and convenient... and when those decisions are terribly difficult and outside of their comfort zones.

Come quickly, jet plane! :)
~Katrina