“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.”- Thucydides
I had bigger plans for this blog post, but after a long day of fun in the sun (and heat) with my 4- and 1-year-old, my body is exhausted. I am five months pregnant and on most days, almost don’t notice! It’s the honeymoon phase…I adore the second trimester. Today, however, being a single, preggers mama has caught up with me and I will likely turn off this computer, grab a tall glass of water and collapse into my bed in just a few moments.
My husband, Mike, deployed a little over a week ago on the USS Truman. He’ll be gone for seven months and my boys already miss him with heavy hearts. We are blessed in so many ways though; not the least of which is that this is his first deployment since we had children. There is more on our day-to-day to come, along with family photos we took before he left — images I wanted, no *needed*, to capture for my children so that they have a daily reminder of their daddy and how much he loves them.
For tonight, I will share a few snapshots I took in the hour before he left. They are not works of art, but more like works of heart. Holding a camera in that final hour was the last thing I wanted to be doing when really, I just wanted to hold my husband and my babies and never let go. But the moments were too important not to record somehow. We all needed something that showed we said goodbye and that now we wait: for my husband, who I admire more than any man on earth, for our daddy, who we love so much that it overflows from all of us, and our very own personal hero, who knows what is ahead, but has gone to meet it with a prayerful and servant’s heart.
by Stephanie
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