Friday, April 22, 2016

A FULL April 2016

WoW! I don’t know if we could’ve fit ONE more thing, physically or emotionally, into April 2016! This month was SO full and beyond crazy but I wouldn’t change one thing about it.

We started off the month with a going away party for my husband at work. He is deploying and will return to a new position. Hearing his coworkers talk about his dedication, his leadership, and his willingness to serve filled my heart! I’m SO proud to be his wife! Not sure how I managed to keep it together through all of that, but I did without a tear! (The kids were a good distraction as they were literally tearing things off the wall. Sorry about that!). And then hurried home to capture some precious moments of some friends and their sweet baby girl! I LOVE my job!



The next day we remembered all those effected by the Fort Hood shooting of April 2014. So crazy how that day is SO real and scary for me still after two years! Our hearts and prayers still go out to all those who lost a loved one that day and are still effected by the tragedy.

This April 2nd though we made good memories with family and friends who helped us celebrate our baby girl’s First Birthday! We had so much fun that day! The next day we worshipped together, as we always do on Sundays. This Sunday was extra emotional for our family as it would be the last time we would do it as a family for a while.


After saying our goodbyes to extended family, my husband and I secretly finished packing for our SURPRISE 10 day trip to Disney World! Our kids had NO idea, I mean NO idea, till we told them the morning we flew out. Spent the night with our brother and sister in Dallas before we left. We told the kids at 4 AM about our SURPRISE because we flew out SO early! They were tired but still SO excited!


Took it easy once we got there since we were all so exhausted, relaxed in the pool, grabbed some dinner and got to bed early. We love Disney and have been several times. We’ve learned a thing or two along the way, so we had a plan of attack for each park. We hit Epcot first, then Hollywood Studios, then Animal Kingdom and finally Magic Kingdom!



The surprises kept coming! Grammie and Papa and Mimi and Uncle Corey joined us at the hotel Friday after naptime! The kids were so happy to see them all and so excited they were going to have some Disney fun with us too! So with everyone we did Magic Kingdom first, followed by Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and then Epcot. We hit ALL our favorite attractions, restaurants, and characters! We were so blessed to do all the little extras we’ve always wanted to do, made possible through my ThirtyOne business. Have I mentioned, I LOVE my job?





Our time in the place where dreams come true ended all too soon and we said our goodbyes to Mickey and friends and our family. We flew into Dallas and stayed the night there again. I’ve been asked to share more about how we do Disney so I’m sure you will see that sometime this summer.

We headed home…for a total of 21 hours! We went to dance class, ran some errands (including getting the car inspected and rounding up packages from the post office), told our kids about our next adventure, and did three complete loads of laundry (all washed, dried, folded and put away or packed again)~thank the Lord for my HE washer and dryer! I packed for a week away, my husband packed for 5 months.

The next morning, we packed up the car and made our way to El Paso, where my husband is deploying from. We chose to join him down there for the week before he left since he had done a lot of his training beforehand. I’m so glad we did! We were so blessed to have one more week with him!

Daddy’s adventure is taking him across the world, where he will help take care of sick and hurt people there. He has to go on this adventure alone. We are going to miss him so much and he is going to miss us so much but he will be back with us before we know it. We will get to talk to him almost every day and he will send us photos of where he is and what it’s like there. We will send him photos of our own adventures and packages of goodies from us too!

I’m sure there are some military wives and families reading this, including my sister and dear friends, that have been through longer and multiple deployments. I don’t know how you do it! Being a military wife or family isn’t always easy and the threat of family life interrupted is one you can’t be fully aware of until you go through it. You are SO strong and I hope some of you will help me as we muddle through this ourselves! The wait alone for it to be time to send Daddy off has been SO hard! This is how we are handling it all.



My husband is deploying for 5 months. This is not what had planned for this summer and definitely not what we had hoped for, but we are dealing with it. We are confident that God has had His hands in the whole thing from the beginning from the way everything fell into place. While we will all miss each other terribly, we know that we can make it through.

Leading up to sending him off has been hard. Thinking about this is the last time we will all eat dinner at the house together, this is the last time we will play at the playground all together for awhile has gotten the best of me a couple of times. I remember being in the middle of a restaurant on the Riverwalk on our trip to San Antonio this spring. My husband kept asking me what was wrong and finally our eyes met and I just lost it. There I sat, my tears spilling into my salsa, knowing that fun weekend getaways like this for our family would have to wait till it was warm again next year.

Saying goodbye to my best friend for the next 5 months is SO hard! We will get to talk to him often, which I’m so thankful for, but it won’t be the same as having him here. Like I said, I don’t know how other families and wives have done this, some of you multiple times! AND it’s already breaking my heart to hear my daughter (the world's BIGGEST Daddy's girl) say she just “wants her daddy back and for us to all be a family again.” She doesn’t “want Daddy to be a doctor anymore”.  I know sweet baby girl, me too! Daddy will be back, but he needs to help soldiers over there for now. We will make it through! 

One day closer, one day stronger!





I’m ending April purchasing my sweet baby girl’s cap and gown for her Preschool graduation. How in the world did this baby get big enough to head to kindergarten in the Fall? AND Daddy has to miss graduation!

We have crammed just about everything imaginable into these 23 days of April. The whirlwind of emotions from this month has been overwhelming! I even left some things out for personal reasons. Oh and there was vomit too, lots of vomit...you're welcome for leaving that part out. We definitely had lots of tears, some sad tears and some happy tears. Some excitement tears and some I miss you already tears. We definitely shared excitement of our kids’ first roller coasters and joy while meeting favorite Disney characters. We shared sadness and fear of the unknown in saying goodbye to Daddy and sending him off on his adventure across the globe. We shared lots of smiles, embraces, and laughter! We definitely made LOTS of memories~from ALL our fun at Disney to ALL the little things here and there. We captured all we could in photos, they truly are worth a thousand words! And this summer those photos will be priceless for my family!

This summer is another adventure, another leg of our journey. This summer’s adventures aren’t what we had planned, but we know it is all part of a bigger plan!

April has been no exception: Our life is beyond crazy most of the time.


But it’s OUR crazy and we wouldn’t have it any other way! 




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