Looking back

(Taken New Year’s Eve – 2010)

2011 has been an interesting year for us.  Honestly, I’m glad it’s over with.  It hasn’t been bad, necessarily, but with Mark being gone close to 9 months last year, it wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.  I’m so glad that we have a deployment under our belt – that it’s not some big unknown looming in front of us like it was this time last year.  I’m proud of us for getting through it and coming out on the other side relatively unscathed.  Deployments aren’t a big mystery to us anymore.  Now we know what they entail, how to cope with them, and most importantly, that we’re capable of surviving them.  Well, with one kid anyway.  With two kids might be a different story.

Abbie has grown up so much this year.  She went from this:

(Taken Jan 2011)

to this:

(Taken Dec 2011)

..in what seems to be the blink of an eye.  And I went from this:

(Taken March 2011)

to this:

(Taken August 2011)

to this:

(Taken Dec  2011)

to this:

(Taken Dec 2011)

I think Mark and I both grew in different ways, which I’ve touched on before.  He’s much more confident now, than he was before, and I think I’m probably more independent than I was prior to the deployment.  I think our relationship reached a different level since we spent so much time apart but were able to keep our marriage strong despite the separation.  And adding Ben to the family was obviously a huge change that we’re still adjusting too.

I’m glad 2011 is behind us and I’m very excited to see what 2012 holds for us.  I can’t wait for Ben to be a few months older to where he’s interacting more with us (and also sleeping through the night…)  And it’ll be fun to watch Abbie continue to grow and to see the relationship that she and Ben build.  And it’ll be nice to have my husband around a little more this year too!