We've been a little lost...

Dave has been out of the country for the past 2 weeks for business.  He spent a week in Israel and a week in Singapore and BOY did we MISS him!  I cannot even begin to explain to you how Dave is the absolute glue in our family.  He is such a humble and quiet leader.  But he supports our family through making lunches, clipping finger and toe nails (I cut Will once as an infant and handed that chore over to him 14 years ago) reading bedtime stories, coaching teams, driving carpool, folding laundry, bathing Kate, tutoring in Algebra,  and grocery shopping.  He also smoothes over hurt feelings, pulls splinters and bandages boo boos and he makes us all laugh! And this is all on top of a demanding career.  I really do not know how he does it.  And he is usually in a good mood while doing it all!  I do not take him or our marriage for granted for one second.

So, we all missed him immensely.  I was blessed to have great friends (Lisa, Amy, Monique, Vi, Cathy and more I might be forgetting) help me while I saw clients, had a 4 hour doctor appt. and needed carpools for sports.  It was hard to get kids to swimming, ballet and soccer all at the same time in different parts of town:)  This experience gave me great empathy and compassion for single parents and parents who have a spouse deployed. I can only imagine how hard it is to keep up this pace indefinitely. It is easy (well maybe not easy but doable) to have a family like ours when two people give 100% but there are a lot of families out there where both parents either can't or don't.  It made me want to be more helpful and mindful of that.  It really does take a village.  I share this so that perhaps you will offer a ride to a Mom or Dad who needs it or bring someone a meal who is raising a family by themselves. I do not have family here so I rely on my friends and I hope they know they can rely on me:)

{Kate and Harry made a welcome home sign}

Let me tell you that Miss Kate was devastated that her Daddy was leaving.  They have never been apart that long.  She SOBBED!  But we came up with a great little idea.  Dave and Kate cut 14 pieces of sticky notes and put them on Kate's bathroom mirror.  Each night Kate took one off and moved it to another spot.  It really helped her as Dave does the bedtime routine with her so that is often a hard time when he is gone.  But she did really well from day 2-14.  I will share the story of day one soon;)

So, we will be so happy this weekend to have Dave home!!  Hope you all have a great weekend too!