Well we did it.  The first day of deployment is done.

He was faithful and I cling to the promise that He will continue to be.

Even with my heart aching and longing for the nearness of my best friend I can LOVE what He has done for me

LOVING this baby girl in the sunshine

LOVING the sweet memories of Monday together: a back-yard BBQ in the sunshine and a bike ride

LOVING 21 gifts written on my gift list (I began at 0 and will look for 1000 gifts during this season of deployment) during our first day apart

1.  Test messages unending in encouragment

2.  No headache this morn

3.  Purple blooms on front porch

4.  His writing at the top of my journal

5.  Making his peanut butter toast just one more time

6.  The peace of this moment

7.  Tirzah comforting me

10.  Her four hour nap!

11.  Alison and Lucy's presence here

12.  A Starbucks treat

13.  6 potato plants newly emerged!!

14.  A friend who understands

15.  The ever widening circle of prayer

16.  First gift of deployment written (more to come on this... but Tirzah and I have a deployment chain going: one link for every week Daniel will be away.  Each day we write one gift from that day upon that week's chain.  At the end of the week, we will send it to Daniel and mark yet another week off!  Praise God!)

17.  "Kisses" from afar (Each night after dinner, Tirzah and I receive a "kiss" from Daniel.  She gets to eat a milk-chocolate Hershey's kiss and I get to eat a dark chocolate kiss!  We each kiss the picture of Daniel that sits on the table... oh how we rejoiced when we made it to this moment last eve).

18.  Vacuuming together (she with her make believe vacuum... a stick!)

19.  Rocking out to Taylor Swift at bath time

20.  He called!!!!!!  I received a call from him late last night while they had a layover!  What healing his voice brought to my heart

21.  The elderly veterans who were there, awaiting the Soldier' arrival.  They provided cell phones for each of them to call their families!  What a GIFT

LOVING that she makes me smile, even when it's hard

LOVING the garden!!  The flowers that were gifted for our second wedding anniversary are glorious in their beauty!  Our sugar snap peas are flourishing, we were gifted a bunch of oregano from our neighbor, and the new potato plants!  

As always, but even more now in his absence, I am most tenderly LOVING my husband, my Soldier, my best friend