A Summary Ending and a New Beginning

We made it through that deployment with love and support from an abundance of family and friends and a loving Heavenly Father. Braden made it home for the birth of our son, leaving after his two week leave only to return and surprise me some months later with a very lucky and rare opportunity to have a second leave. I can honestly say that was the best surprise I have ever had.

Then, some months after that, our husband and father came home to us for good and we felt all would be well forever after, that we would live our lives in rays of sunshine and fields of daisies. We soon found out the only sure thing about life is its unpredictability.

Braden has now been home from Iraq for four years and we are still putting the pieces of our lives together. Through much work and love, sweat and tears, we made it to where we are now. Only a soldier's wife could understand the battles we have fought since his homecoming, the victories we have earned, and the defeats we have suffered. Each day we encounter new struggles and new triumphs. But we are together in spite of it all, and better and stronger for it.

And, sometimes, the rays of sun shine down on us and I smell a hint of daises.