Our girl

Yesterday marks a week that Justin's been home. I know you will forgive me for being "away" online--we had too much to enjoy here to do much more than the occasional e-mail check and to post a few pictures. On Wednesday we went down to welcome home another group of soldiers--this time specifically to be with Julia as she waited to welcome home her husband Kellen. I took pictures for Julia and so Justin held Evelyn throughout the ceremony while I handled the camera. It was so sweet to see them together. I just can't get over it.

Justin and I had discussed and wondered about how the reintegration of our family might go...we figured there would be some difficultly reintroducing him to Evelyn and prepared ourselves as best as we could for the reality that she would not know her father. Still, the first afternoon he was here, I must tell you, it hit me hard when she burst into tears at his touch when he reached out to steady her as she stood. It broke both of our hearts and the unfairness of the whole situation--that hundreds of military families have gone through and are going through the same thing washed over me like a crashing wave. That was a hard moment to swallow, despite the fact that we knew it would be the case and had attempted to prepare ourselves mentally for it. We took a deep breath, held each other's hands, comforted Evelyn, and kept playing.

Now here's the really surprising and amazing part--after that first afternoon, she has not cried AT him, or because of him ONCE. She has adjusted to him better than I could have imagined. She looks for him after waking for a nap, she crawls to him, and she's even babbling "dada"--sort of at him...It fills me with such joy, I can hardly convey it to you. There are still many things she prefers me for of course, and Justin hasn't felt confident enough yet to tackle bath time, but I am amazed by how normal it all feels so soon after having him home.

Well, I say that, but really it's always been that way. He comes home, and it's as if he was never away. I love him so, and from the look in Evelyn's eyes when she gazes at him, it's clear she feels the same way.