A week without husband

This was, quite honestly, one of the strangest weeks of my life. As an independent, adventurous, trail-blazer kind of girl, I thought I had overcome any problems with being alone. I knew I could take on China by myself, Israel by myself and big city living by myself with only a few minor hiccups along the way. I thought when it came to being on my own... I'd seen it all. Boy was I wrong.

Sweet husband was gone last week for a conference in southern Utah.. and suddenly, after 3 weeks of marriage, I was all alone. This was not the.. i'm in a classroom studying alone "alone" nor was it the "no one understands what i'm going through" "alone"... it was none of those alone feelings.

This feeling was... a part of me was missing. The apartment was eerie silent, as if I could feel the emptiness around me. I had no motivation to cook for myself (yay to granola bars and pb&js for consecutive days) and no one to drive to school with at a sleepy 7am. The pillows smelled like him. His clothes were next to mine in the closet. But he was...gone.

Husband was only gone for 4 days... but it was 4 days too long! Him leaving last week taught me how much I love and need him, that despite my happy, single, independent memories nothing is worth being without him. I am part of a whole now...and.. for lack of a better phrase - we're oh-so-much better when we are together!

Three Words: Sick, Jet-lag, School

Do you ever feel like life makes you say - "yikes". Because I did this past week. After our blissful honeymoon abroad (I am excited to write about Paris!) we headed home for the beginning of the semester. A beautiful disaster awaited us. My throat and nose blew up before our transcontinental flight back to the U.S. This led to a plane seat strewn with used tissues galore, keeping all my fellow passengers awake with my chain-smoker-like coughs, and trying not to cover sweet, loving husband in all the sick fluids that just.. I mean, come out.. when you are sick. Ew! We had to sprint between two connecting flights in Vancouver and Chicago - never mind purchasing real food in the 15 minutes of sprinting through terminals - and didn't find husband's bag waiting for us at our final SLC destination.

  Over the next few days, jetlag tried to party with us at 2am, 4am AND 5am while we battled early morning classes, work and.. in my case.. a very weak and battered immune system. Husband held me while I coughed, we opened leftover wedding gifts at the unruly hour of 3am and Chinese homework was muggled through. We were hungry at midnight and didn’t feel like eating at 1pm. In short… I wanted to laugh and cry every day. It was FUNny… looking back on it..

  This week, we’re feeling very grateful for the little things. We are grateful for healthy bodies and enough chocolate in the pantry… grateful for a good God and for good friends who love and support us. We are grateful for a full-night’s sleep and chocolate chip cookies and early morning car rides to campus.

Life may occasionally make you say “yikes” - but it also makes you smile and giggle and feel warm and happy all over.

Next week is going to be great - I can feel it!