Love Fest

Harleigh and I agreed that this visit home has been, by far, the best in all the time she's been away at college. It's been a mix of holiday-related busyness and idle vacation-time relaxing. She has matured a great bit since going off to school, and I've gone from loving a little girl to admiring a woman.

While the routine of home (me) and school (girlie) get lost in the straddling of one year and the next, we've come to appreciate what this time should capture for us . . . building our relationship with each other and with God, encouraging each other to be the best we can be. While both of us will welcome routine back into our embrace with familiar fondness, there will be much to miss about two girls and a big hairy dog living under one roof (and all the spontaneity, laughter, talking and loving it entails). As we approach the day to hug and once again say goodbye, each of us knows that a huge part of our hearts go with the other. In reality, we really won't be leaving each other at all.

Gideon and his best gal givin' each other a smooch. (His head is the size of a hydrangea bush. Lots to love.)