A New Chapter

Wow, where to begin? A little over three years ago our little trio made a cross country move from sunny Florida to a rainy place I knew nothing about Oak Harbor, Washington...

We knew the road ahead would be difficult at times, but we were up for the challenge. We had been preparing for several years for the separations we would face, in a lot of ways we were more than ready to "get the show on the road".

To say the past few years haven't held their share of tears and heartache would be a lie. But, interestingly enough, I also wouldn't trade them. Tonight marks the end of a chapter for us. Nate arrives in San Antonio to stay and I'm happy to report, for the first time in a long time, I don't know when he will be leaving again. I will breathe a huge sigh of relief when he walks through our front door in just a few short hours. In many ways I feel like we have our life back. Time to be a family, get involved in things together, enjoy all that day to day life brings. We are Texans again but what we left behind in Washington were some valuable lessons learned. We learned what it means to love in spite of the distance between you and survive moments that you think you can't make it through. We are stronger people for pushing through when things weren't easy and finding the bright spots when they were doing their best to hide from us.

As I type all this I realize that we aren't really leaving these things behind, they go with us in our hearts, and will always be there to remind us of what it means to be a family.

There is one thing we really did leave in Washington...this sweet little baby face...

We traded her in for a bright eyed, sensitive, sweet, sharp as a tack, not to mention hilarious four year old (we think she's pretty special)...

We're also happy that moving, while it did slightly complicate things, couldn't stop this little bunny from joining our ranks...

Of all the lessons I've learned over the past three years the greatest one may be realizing that the everyday little things should not be taken for granted. When you are left without them you quickly see they are the things you miss the most. So what am I looking most forward to as we step into this new chapter? Well, for starters, I'm just thrilled that at the end of each day this face will be walking through the front door...