7 Months Later...

Hello out there!

I just got home from spending almost 3 weeks in Montana with my family.  Unfortunately, Pat was unable to come, as he's hoarding vacation time and was on a little vacation of his own with his family.  (Sidenote: I haven't seen him in 3 weeks.  He gets home tomorrow and I.cannot.wait.  I'm counting down the hours at this point.  I love the fact that even after 9 years together, including 5 years of marriage, I still get butterflies about seeing him when we've been apart.)

While I was at home, I was perusing photos on my mom's computer, and ran across a couple that were taken over Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving was our first trip back to Montana after losing Virginia.  At this point, we were 3 months out from her birth, and it's evident from the way I look in this picture that I was not in a very good place at that time.

I wanted to post these pictures not because I'm a glutton for punishment and feel the need to show the world some of the worst pictures I've ever taken, but because it's a good reminder for me of how far I've come in the 7 months since these pictures were taken.  At this point in time, I couldn't slap a genuine smile on my face if someone paid me a million dollars.

These days, I have a much more genuine smile.  I smiled and laughed more in the last 3 weeks with my family (especially these 3 boys) than I have in 10 months.  It felt pretty damn good.

What a difference 7 months makes.