Before Goodbye

This post is difficult. Before Chris left we had our ups and downs. He was stressed with deployment preparations. I was overwhelmed at the length of his impending absence. We were both on edge. 

His departure was delayed a weekend thanks to the hurricane. All his preparations were complete, so he was able to really focus on the kids and their birthdays. I don’t realize how stressful his job is until he’s back to normal and not grumpy. 

He gave them their daddy dolls, read them stories, we went on walks around the neighborhood, we ate dinner on ship when he had watch and at the restaurant around the corner we’d first gone to the weekend we moved in. 

On one hand, everything was normal—see the kids devouring apples straight out of the autumn farm table box. But on be other hand, we knew everything was about to change….