Companionship

One thing that has been a wonderful effect of our time here has been deepened friendship.

Without the distractions of home, however wonderful they are, Kevin and I have had the chance to fall even more into friendship and love.  There's something about traveling to a foreign land that really makes me realize the home we find in one another. 

We have been together for almost 9 years.  It doesn't seem like much, but they were crucial formative, years of self-discovery.  And I have been glad for his companionship.

He is my even-keeled support, my main cheerleader and the only man in the world who finds me the most beautiful woman in the world.

Being a student family for all but 9 months of our marriage has been a challenge, to say the least.  We have lived below the poverty level, not had access to healthcare, lived paycheck to paycheck and had our fair share of blow-out fights.  We bicker.  He drives me nuts.  I drive him nuts.  I lose my keys and he forgets to buy flowers.  But there is love.  So much love.

And in turn, we have fallen for these two:

Man, have we fallen hard.

We are not the best parents.  Too lenient some days, too strict others, but we try to smooth it over with lots of love, like finger swiping a lovely frosted cake.  We just get all up in that sugar.

We play freeze tag in bare feet and dress clothes.  We pile on our bed and bury ourselves in some Ceci belly.  We act goofy and wild and sing at the top of our lungs, watch Glee clips and pick lemons and talk in accents and learn about dinosaurs and wonder why we can't fly.

I'm just feelin' the love right now.

And how AWESOME it is to have Erica here.  She is my earliest, longest-running friend, and is just part of the family.  Though we may go months between visits, we always pick up where we left off and settle into the comfort of a life-long friendship.

We did Bethlehem sites today, and I prayed especially at the Milk Grotto for all my friends and loved ones who are trying to conceive, are pregnant and who have nursing challenges.

[The Milk Grotto (officially Magharet Sitti Mariam, "Grotto of the Lady Mary") is a serene grotto only a few minutes' walk from Manger Square in Bethlehem.
This grotto, with a Franciscan chapel built above it, is considered sacred because tradition has it that the Holy Family took refuge here during the Slaughter of the Innocents, before their flight into Egypt. Tradition has it that while Mary was nursing Jesus here, a drop of milk fell to the ground, turning it white.]  Source:  http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-milk-grotto.htm

I won't name everyone by name out of sensitivity, but for those who are known to the outside world:
For Julie, Angela, Amy S. who just gave birth these past 2 weeks.

For Quinn, Simone, Sarah, Donna and the wee ones within.

For those of you who have confided in me your desire for children or more children.

And finally, that God might bless us with another Haley to love.