Six Years Ago...

I can hardly believe it's been another year, another anniversary.

With the busy hubbub of our lives, Duane and I were barely able to make time for an anniversary date on Sunday, but thanks to Antoinette and my Mom, we were able to escape for a dinner and walk around the Forks.  Avalyn tagged along and it was really nice to enjoy our baby daughter together.

This time of year is the hardest.  Farmers' wives become seasonal widows as our husbands tend to the fields, fixing machinery, seeding, harrowing, fixing machinery, cutting hay, fixing machinery and last but not least... fixing machinery!  With Duane working his full-time firefighting job in addition to working full time in the fields, moments together are very few and far between.  When too much time lapses without good connecting moments (a hug, a touch, kind words or a gentle smile) it's easy to feel a distance growing between you.

Thank God Almighty that the gap is always quickly closed in with eager hearts but the exhaustion and sleep deprivation can make the "reaching out" difficult at times.

Needless to say, our anniversary date was an absolute gift and I truly cherished our time together.  I cherish my husband, our life together, our children, our challenges and our triumphs.  I am in love with "our story" and the incredible fact that we have started a lineage of our own together... who knows what it will look like five generations from now!  We are a part of a future generation's history (God willing).  That is pretty darn cool!

But for tonight, I am just happy to be Rita.  A daughter to Claude and Jacqueline... a sister to Danny, David, Diane, Linda and Eric... an aunt, a cousin, a friend... but best of all, mother to Melina, Isabel, Anika, Ethan, Sivana and Avalyn... and wife to my favourite person in the world: Duane.

No matter what the distance that can grow in times of separation, it cannot change the simplicity of my joy which is my life.  In all its chaos, in all its upheaval, in all its glorious details (and boy are there details!).  Amen.

God bless you all out there and thank you for your patience as life settles down enough for me to find the time to write.  It's like an old friend waiting patiently to reconnect... and I eagerly anticipate the reconnection!