In 2007, my husband, Bo, was in the Air Force and we were assigned to a base on a tiny island off the coast of Portugal (part of the Azores). As a way to keep up with family and friends en masse, I chose to begin a journal to chronicle our experiences. I used LiveJournal and entitled it, "Once on This Island," a name I borrowed from one of my favorite musicals. I continued to write the whole time we were there (just shy of two years), and then when we separated from the military and returned to the States to start a brand new life, six months pregnant with our first baby.
I especially found writing a comfort during the three-month-long stint Bo was madly searching for employment while we took refuge in his mother's basement. Oh how the words I couldn't say flowed freely from my fingertips! God finally cleared the fog of fear and franticness and provided us with a job and a home a mere three weeks before our baby girl arrived, our Heavenly Father of the 11th hour. (And isn't that the most wonderful place to truly see Him working and know His presence and divine plan?) As any of you reading who are parents know, post-parenthood, the free time/ability to form coherent thoughts (let alone write them) severely ... diminishes. Consequently, I brought that journal to a close with a post written six weeks after Leila was born; the first I'd written since penning a letter to Leila the night before I had her. Frankly, I was okay with leaving it like that. Though I missed writing, I kept telling myself I was too busy living life to write about it. And that's true. But one more child later, I've found a little more footing - and also found that there is so much beauty, so much that is poignant and profound, and even just mundane but entertaining (!) that needs - deserves - to be archived, for those who are so inclined to do so. And I am so inclined.
I want to make time for this so that I won't forget. Starting this was the impetus for my finally exporting entries from "Once on This Island." Reading through those journals, something I hadn't touched in two and a half years, I was so blown away by all I'd forgotten, and even moreso by how the simple act of reading the words vividly took me back to exactly where I was when I'd written them. How could I not want to give this even more magnificent era of my life the same thought and care? Not just for me, but for Leila Grace and Luke. As my brother and I grew up, my mother kept a tiny spiral notebook where she wrote down things we said or did that she wanted to remember. When we were older, she'd bring it out and lovingly (laughingly) read what she'd written about us. I always felt so special - so honored - that she cared enough to do that. I would like to honor my children the same way. (Not that this blog will be solely about them, but you know what I mean.)
Anyway, I've done a lot of rambling to get to my actual point, which is that since this blog is dedicated to the kiddos, and will probably be about them more often than not, I will repost my last two entries from my previous journal - the letter to Leila and the closing post, both from 2009. I will also post Luke's birth story that I originally wrote in a note on Facebook. I'd like to archive them here, in this new "home," to help make our story more complete. Many of you have probably already read them, so please know I am only posting them for the sake of them being included in this collection (i.e. do not feel compelled to re-read them, unless you want to).
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