This just says it all

So, Mark went to the Philippines for 10 days and just got home on Friday...
Let's just say it was a long 10 days!!
While I had Mark's parents here, I still worried away many sleepless nights
over having my husband so far away
and on an opposite schedule than us!
I really am a worry-er. I'll admit it!
I stress and get anxiety over long flights that could crash
into the ocean never to be found,
and a 3rd world country with pick-pocketers with guns
who'll kill a foreigner for his wallet....
Yes, I'm paranoid! I try to not watch any TV when Mark is out of town.
Not any.
Because even a preview for a scary movie
will cause endless hours of sleep to be missed.
Let's just say that this week has had me slowly deflating from a stressful,
anxious 10 days of worrying about becoming a widow
and single mother at the age of 34.
I'm so grateful for him and all the little things he does!
He is so terribly busy and I wish he had more free time,
but I realized that even the 5-10 minutes he takes with the kids
before bed is indeed helpful!
And, I've taken that for granted.... and so glad and happy
I don't have to "hold down the fort" alone forever.

SO.
This picture is quite entertaining.
The kids missed him about as much as I did!
They were all squeals and smiles and hugs and kisses
from the second they saw him until they had to go to sleep!
So, on Saturday we took the kids on a bike ride down by the beach...
It was a little eerie being there while so much turmoil
and disaster was occuring on the other side of that ocean in Japan.
The waves were quite strange and seemed to come
sporadically and unpredictably.
I would not let my kids near it! It looked and seemed like some
scary undercurrents going on in that swishy whitewash
and I could just imagine one of my little ones getting swept out to sea!
Yet, another reason, I am a worry-er.
My biggest prayer lately is that I can protect my children
from harm as it seems that with 3 little ones free as
birds and monkeys seem to be able to run, fly, jump, and disappear
in 3 different directions where dangerous obstacles of death await them!

Ok, I'm off on a tangent... the picture!
So, I love this picture. It says it all.
Sarah missed her daddy so much, she couldn't stop kissing him...
and Shelby, mid-throw, excited as ever to have her Daddy
back playing with her...
Rowan was building a "rock castle" under the direction of
Daddy while he relaxed his poor jet-lagged body in the So Cal sun.

I love my family so so much.

And I'm so grateful to have a husband
who loves and cares for us as much as he does.