I found this picture in an old wallet of mine, and decided to scan it for my picture of the day.  I’m sorry that it’s a little banged up, but that’s what happens when you carry something around for that long.  This picture was taken in 2002 – shortly before your first deployment to the middle east, and a few months before our wedding.  I often wonder to myself that had I known the road our marriage was about to take, would I still have gone along for the ride?   At the moment this picture was taken, I couldn’t fathom spending over 4 of the next 8 years apart from each other.  I had no idea that you would be on your 3rd deployment right now.  The thought of you having a nearly 4 year old daughter, whom you have only spent 18 months with would have crushed my soul.  We’re here though, and that’s the road we’ve taken.   As I anticipate your homecoming and our reunion, I have to admit that I’m nervous.  We’ve both grown in different ways {and I’ve shrunk!}.  We have to invest in each other all over again – learn to live together and get acquainted with each other’s new habits.  We have to figure out how to parent together again, and get Kylie accustomed to having her Daddy around.  Anyone that’s ever made it through a deployment knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about.   Do I think it will be a failure?  Absolutely not.  I know it will take some time though, and with patience and persistence we will make it just fine.  Although we’ve changed completely since this picture was taken, we’re a lot like it – banged up a little.  That’s what happens when you carry something, like WAR, for as long as we have.